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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


FROM   THE     BRONZE     ON    THE     MONUMENT     TO     THE      FIRST 
NEW     JERSEY      BRIGADE      AT       GETTYSBURG. 


SERVICE 


WITH   THE 


FRENCH   TROOPS 


IN 


AFRICA 


BY  AN  OFFICER   IN  THE   UNITED  STATES  ARMY 


NEW  YORK :  1844 


CONTENTS. 


PACK 

SERVICE  WITH  THE  FRENCH  TROOPS  IN  AFRICA       .        .       i 
BY  AN  OFFICER  IN  THE  U.  S.  ARMY. 

PHILIP  KEARNY  :  A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  .        .     61 

BY  MAJ.-GEN.  JOHN  WATTS  DEPEYSTER. 

KEARNY  AT  SEVEN  PINES  :  A  POEM       .         .        .         .83 
BY  E.  C.  STEDMAN. 

A  DASHING  DRAGOON      .        .        .        .        .        .        .     87 

BY  CAPTAIN  MAYNE  REID. 

CORRESPONDENCE ,';;  \        .99 


AFRICA: 

SERVICE  WITH  THE  FRENCH  TROOPS. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840— EXPEDITION 
AGAINST  MILIANAH. 

IN  the  province  of  Algiers,  the  peace  (of  the  Tafra)  that 
had  been  made  with  the  Arabs  continued  unbroken  for 
the  space  of  two  years,  when,  with  the  suddenness  of  our 
own  Indians,  the  first  signal  of  war  was  given  by  the 
massacre  of  an  entire  detachment  at  Oued-le-leg,  in  Octo 
ber,  1839.  And  it  was  then  the  French  found  that  the 
power  they  had  consolidated  in  the  hands  of  Abd-el- 
Kader,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  united  people  of 
the  scattered  tribes  of  Arabs,  had  been  intrusted  to  one 
who  knew  how  to  wield  it  for  his  own  aggrandizement. 
Owing  to  this  same  short-sighted  policy,  which  furnished 
French  officers  as  instructors  to  discipline  his  wild  people, 
and  provided  artillery,  arms,  and  all  the  munitions  of 
war — to  this,  rather  than  to  the  assistance  of  his  powerful 
coadjutor,  the  king  (i)  of  Tunis,  Abd-el-Kader  found  him 
self  indebted  for  being  at  the  head  of  a  disciplined  army  of 
some  thousands,*  besides  the  countless  Bedouin  cavalry  of 
the  plains,  and  indomitable  Kabyles  of  the  mountains ;  all 
urged  on,  and  united  by,  religious  fanaticism  against  the 

*  Abd-el-Kader's  army  was  rated  at  about  five  or  six  thousand  regular 
troops,  being  infantry,  and  some  two  thousand  Spahis,  or  regular  cavalry, 
officered  very  much,  by  deserters  from  the  French  camp. 

I 


2  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,   1840: 

French.  Their  chief,  who  was,  moreover,  the  head  of  their 
religion,  by  birth  the  Grand  Marabout,  had  appealed  to 
this  never-failing  tocsin  of  Mahomedanism 

About  this  same  time  the  Due  d'Orleans,  at  the  head  of 
an  army,  by  an  unexpected  movement,  deceived  the  Arabs 
as  to  his  real  point  of  attack,  and  passed  the  impregnable 
and  immemoriably  celebrated  defile  of  the  Bibans,  or 
Gates-of-Iron.  This  pass,  the  late  masters  of  the  country, 
the  Turks,  had  never  entered  without  paying  tribute  to 
its  unconquerable  mountain-defenders,  the  Kabyles,*  and 
through  this  the  Romans,  who  overran  the  whole  country 
to  the  ocean,  tradition  bespeaks  never  to  have  ventured ; 
and  here  alone,  throughout  this  region,  they  have  left  no 
vestige  of  their  dominion.  As  for  results,  this  expedition 
was  productive  of  none,  excepting  the  temporary  aston 
ishment  excited  by  its  rashness,  for  it  was  accomplished 
without  meeting  a  foe. 

From  the  want  of  troops  and  sufficient  means,  this  out 
break  of  Abd-el-Kader  was  followed  by  no  immediate 
grand  expedition  on  the  part  of  the  French  against  the 
Arabs,  and  the  war  was  confined  to  continued  skirmishing 
of  single  corps.  As  for  the  colonists  f  of  the  Metidjah,  they 
had  been  at  once  swept  from  the  plains,  flying  for  refuge 
to  the  towns,  the  troops  themselves  scarce  venturing  out 
of  their  strong-holds.  One  affair,  however,  is  too  brilliant 

*  Kabyles  is  a  general  name  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  ranges  of  the  Atlas 
mountains.  They  are  very  poor,  but  fierce  ;  good  marksmen,  and  skilled 
in  partisan  war. 

f  The  French  are  too  local  in  their  attachments  to  make  good  colonists, 
and  the  population  of  the  French  African  possessions  are  principally  Ger 
mans  and  Spaniards.  Still,  the  richness  of  the  fair  plain  of  the  Metidjah 
had  tempted  many,  and  had  it  not  been  for  this  unexpected  invasion  of  the 
Arabs,  the  French  authorities  had  considered  this  embryo  settlement  as 
having  attained  a  permanency.  The  plain  of  the  Metidjah  is  thirty  leagues 
or  more  in  length,  averaging  some  ten  to  fifteen  in  width,  bounded  by  the 
first  range  of  the  Atlas  and  the  high  hilly  region  on  the  sea,  stretching  out 
in  a  semi-circular  direction,  commencing  just  beyond  the  "  Maison  Carree," 
four  leagues  east  of  Algiers,  and  running  west  till  it  again  meets  the  sea  in 
the  region  of  Churchell  ;  it  is  well  watered,  its  streams  skirted  with  the 
orange  grove,  and,  withal,  unrivalled  by  any  European  soil  for  richness. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  3 

to  be  passed  over :  it  was  where  a  corps,  headed  by  Mar 
shal  Valee  in  person,  came  unexpectedly  on  a  part  of  Abd- 
el-Kader's  regular  army.  It  was  a  conflict  of  short  but 
desperate  duration,  and  was  decided  by  Colonel  Bojolll, 
(Pays  de  Bojolli,)  with  his  1st  Chasseurs  d'  Afrique, 
charging  and  breaking  in  upon  the  enemy's  regular  in 
fantry.  It  was  a  lesson  they  never  got  over,  for,  in  the 
subsequent  operations  of  the  spring,  they  never  once  ven 
tured  within  striking  distance  of  the  cavalry,  however 
ready  to  contest  desperately  the  mountain  defiles  with 
the  infantry.  Early  in  January  a  grand  expedition  was 
talked  of,  then  put  off  till  February,  and  still  further  post 
poned  till  April,  nor  actually  taking  place  till  the  26th  of 
that  month.  These  delays  were  principally  owing  to  the 
tardiness  with  which  requisite  means  were  forthcoming  ;  a 
constant,  if  not  decided  opposition  to  it  having  been  al 
ways  made  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  until  at  length 
the  opposition  yielded  on  coming  into  power,  and  the 
president,  Thiers,  declared,  though  not  till  the  month  of 
May,  their  determination  to  support  with  vigor  the  affairs 
of  Africa. 

This  expedition,  which  set  out  on  the  26th  of  April, 
[1840]  had  for  its  objects  the  taking  of  the  towns  of  Medeah 
and  Milianah.  The  first  had  formerly  been  besieged  and 
taken  by  Marechal  Clausel  when  governor-general,  but  had 
subsequently  been  given  up,  as  being  too  distant  to  have  a 
bearing  on  the  colonization  of  the  Metidjah.  Still,  the  way 
to  it  was  known.  Milianah,  on  the  other  hand,  lay  beyond 
the  range  of  the  "  Smaller  Atlas,"  in  the  plain  of  the 
Cheliff,  a  region  where  no  European  *  had  ever  trod  (2). 
Previous  to  the  commencing  the  main  operations  of  the 
spring,  Cherchell,  (the  ancient  Julia  Cesarea,)  a  small  place 

*  I  have  omitted  two  exceptions  :  the  one  was  that  of  a  French  surgeon, 
who,  during  the  peace,  had  ingratiated  himself  with  Abd-el-Kader  ;  the 
other  was  a  French  captain  of  chasseurs,  who,  having  been  sent  as  envoy, 
was  conducted  blindfolded,  until,  being  unbandaged,  on  opening  his  eyes 
he  found  himself  in  the  splendid  palace  of  the  Dey  of  Milianah.  The 
European  workmen  of  his  armories  were  deserters  in  his  own  army,  or  those 
who,  having  been  allowed  him  during  peace,  he  afterwards  detained. 


4  TH£   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

some  seventeen  leagues  from  Algiers  west,  had  been 
seized  by  a  small  column  of  infantry,  accompanied  by  an 
expedition  by  sea,  and  occupied  without  resistance  by  the 
Due  d'Aumale.  The  principal  object  was  to  make  it  one 
of  the  places  constituting  the  basis  of  operations.  The 
army  intended  for  the  spring  campaign  amounted  to 
about  thirteen  or  fourteen  thousand  men  of  all  corps,  at 
tended  by  a  numerous  convoy.  This,  it  may  be  added, 
is  the  chief  obstacle  to  all  movements  in  this  country  ; 
for  the  French  are  obliged  to  carry  with  them  their  entire 
subsistence  for  themselves,  and  the  cavalry  rations  for  the 
horse. 

As  the  Arabs  were  in  large  force  in  the  plain,  (some 
eight  thousand,)  the  troops  were  engaged  almost  the  mo 
ment  they  commenced  their  advance.  The  days  of  the 
27th,  28th,  and  3Oth,  their  "tirailleurs"  (skirmishers)  had 
constant  partial  engagements  with  the  enemy,  which,  at 
times,  became  general  and  severe.  On  the  2/th,  a  general 
charge  of  all  the  cavalry  (about  two  thousand  in  all)  took 
place,  but  was  attended  with  no  particular  results,  as  the 
Arabs  fled  in  all  directions,  not  waiting  to  receive  it.  Sub 
sequently,  for  some  days,  the  army  remained  in  the  plain 
of  the  Metidjah,  manoeuvring  in  vain  to  bring  the  Arabs 
to  an  engagement,  marching  to  Cherchell  to  deposit  their 
wounded,  receive  anew  another  provisionment,  as  well  as 
to  relieve  it  from  a  large  force  of  Arabs,  who  were  laying 
desperate  siege  to  it ;  *  after  that,  by  a  movement  to  the 

*  It  was  here,  at  this  time,  that  some  of  the  hardest  and  most  desperate 
fighting  took  place  during  the  whole  year.  It  was  defended  by  the  cele 
brated  Colonel  Cavaignac,  then  ckSf '  de  battalion  of  Zouaves — the  company, 
commanded  by  a  Corsican,  (I  met  him  afterwards,  but  forget  his  name)  of 
sixty  men,  had  but  seventeen  left  alive  ;  and  of  them,  all  but  three  were 
badly  wounded,  himself  of  the  number.  I  believe  that  it  belonged  to  the 
"  Foreign  Legion,"  (Legion  Etrangtre.)  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  writer 
arrived  in  Africa,  and  had  I  have  had  a  proper  authorization  from  the 
French  government,  I  could  at  once  have  been  permitted  to  join  the  army, 
for  officers  who  came  over  in  the  "Acheron"  with  me  did  so.  But  mere  pri 
vate  letters  from  our  minister  had  not  sufficient  weight,  as  great  secrecy  was 
kept  up  in  relation  to  the  movements  of  the  army  in  the  field  ;  and  though 
the  commandant  of  Algiers,  the  Colonel  de  Marengo,  was  a  friend  of  our 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  5 

left,  returning  towards  Blida  to  the  Col  de  Teneah,  a 
difficult  gorge  in  the  mountains,  and  which  it  was  neces 
sary  for  them  to  force  as  the  only  known  approach  to 
Medeah. *  It  was  accordingly  attacked  the  morning  of 
the  1 2th  of  May;  the  infantry  being  formed  in  three  col 
umns  or  divisions,  supported  by  artillery.  The  cavalry 
were  left  at  the  Houish  de  Moussaiah  (Ferme  de  Mous- 
saiah)  to  protect  the  convoy,  and  watch  the  movements 
of  the  Arab  horse,  who  were  still  in  great  numbers  in  the 
plain  of  the  Metidjah.f  This  was  a  brilliant  affair,  perhaps 
the  most  so  of  the  spring,  and  in  it  the  Zouaves,  and  I2th 
and  I /th  light  infantry,  were  most  particularly  distin 
guished.  The  action,  owing  to  the  length  of  the  passes 
and  height  to  be  attained,  continued  for  seven  or  eight 
hours'  hard  fighting ;  and  the  peal  of  the  musketry  was 
augmented  to  a  heavy  roar  by  the  resonation  of  the 
mountains.  The  killed  and  wounded  in  this  action 
amounted  to  some  sixty  killed,  and  four  hundred  wounded. 
The  height,  however,  once  occupied,  the  entire  army 
crossed  without  annoyance  the  chain,  and  proceeded  with 
out  further  opposition  to  Medeah,  which  was  abandoned 
by  the  Arabs  on  their  approach.  After  a  rest  here  for 
some  few  days  to  recruit  the  force  of  the  army,  a  garrison 
of  two  thousand  men  were  left,  under  the  command  of  the 
veteran  and  aged  General  Duvivier,  celebrated  as  an 

consul,  and  would  have  befriended  me,  he  did  not  dare  to  direct  me  to  go  to 
Cherchell.  I  have  always  looked  back  on  this  with  great  regret  ;  for,  though 
the  taking  of  Medeah  was  a  very  secondary  thing,  nor  the  campaign  so  des 
perate  as  when,  a  month  later,  the  heats  of  June  scattered  sickness  through 
the  army,  still  the  presence  of  the  Princes  d'Orleans  and  d'Aumale  gave  an 
eclat  to  this,  which  the  other,  with  the  distant  public,  did  not  possess. 

*  Medeah  lay  on  the  other  side  of  the  first  range  of  the  Atlas,  in  a  very 
rugged  and  almost  mountainous  region  of  country,  which  gradually  opened 
out,  and,  as  it  proved  to  be,  at  the  western  extremity  of  the  plain  of  the 
Cheliff. 

f  It  was  a  remarkable  fact,  proving  that  another  and  better  pass  must 
exist  near,  that  the  entire  Bedouin  cavalry  evacuated  one  plain  and  passed 
over  to  the  other  in  some  very  few  hours,  less  than  half  a  day,  which  a  single 
unmolested  horseman  could  not  have  accomplished  by  the  pass  of  the  Col  de 
Teneah. 


6  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

engineer  officer.  It  was  here,  at  this  time,  from  want  of 
sufficient  subsistence  with  the  convoy  to  provision  the 
army  for  the  required  period,  since  much  time  had  been 
wasted,  that  Marshal  Valee  deemed  it  expedient,  most 
especially  as  the  situation  of  Milianah  was  reported  very 
strong,  and  the  approaches  to  it  by  the  plain  of  the  Cheliff 
were  unknown,  to  make  a  retrograde  motion  on  Algiers, 
and  leave  this  the  undertaking  of  an  immediately  subse 
quent  expedition.  The  army,  in  its  march  back,  had 
another  serious  engagement  on  the  2oth  of  May;  the 
Arabs  attacking  and  attempting  to  cut  off  their  rear-guard 
and  the  cavalry  in  the  intricacies  of  the  mountains.  The 
army  re-entered  Algiers  on  the  23d  of  May.  * 

*  I  have  before  stated  that  I  arrived  in  Africa  on  the  7th  May,  that  I  had 
been  kindly  received  by  Colonel  Sacroux,  an  old  imperial  officer,  and  now 
the  commander  of  the  National  Guard  of  Algiers,  (which  he  had  organized,) 
and  the  protector  of  American  interests,  holding  the  consulship.  He  pre 
sented  me  to  Colonel  de  Marengo,  the  then  commanding  officer  of  the  place, 
and  channel  of  communication  between  the  marshal  and  France.  But  my 
letters  were  insufficient,  as  government  authorization  would  alone  have 
sufficed  ;  and  I  was  obliged  to  give  up  all  hopes  of  joining  the  main  army, 
which,  had  I  been  properly  provided,  I  might  have  done,  as  before  shown, 
at  Cherchell.  My  time,  however,  was  spent  in  visiting  the  forts  and  fortified 
camps  around  Algiers.  A  week  was  thus  passed,  not  wholly  without  excite 
ment,  for  a  party  of  Arabs  made  a  roving  attack  within  two  leagues  of 
Algiers.  On  the  I4th  May,  General  Corbin,  the  commander  of  the  district 
of  Algiers,  arrived  there.  I  was  presented  to  him  by  Colonel  de  Marengo. 
He  received  me  remarkably  politely,  said  I  had  no  hopes  of  joining  the 
army,  but  advised  my  visiting  the  different  posts,  to  give  me  an  idea  of  gar 
rison  service  in  time  of  war.  He  gave  me  letters,  and  I  visited  the  cele 
brated  camp  at  Douera  on  the  lyth  May,  where  there  are  barracks  and 
accommodations  for  five  thousand  men  and  two  thousand  cavalry.  I  remained 
here  that  day  and  the  i8th,  minutely  examining  its  works,  the  disposition  of 
its  buildings,  the  plans  of  the  stables,  the  duties  of  the  guards,  the  wakeful- 
ness  of  the  pickets,  its  advanced  posts,  mode  of  communicating  intelligence 
from  the  distant  videttes,  points  of  look-out,  &c.  The  camp  of  Douera  was 
garrisoned  by  the  3d  light  infantry,  a  regiment  newly  arrived  in  Africa,  and 
one  which  had  not  as  yet  seen  the  fire  of  a  fight.  On  the  igth,  a  moveable 
column  under  General  Rostolan  was  sent  out  to  convoy  provisions  to  the 
Houish  de  Moussaiah,  and  to  bring  back  the  survivors  of  the  four  hundred 
wounded  of  the  late  affair  of  the  I2th.  I  obtained  permission  to  accompany 
them,  and  did  so.  That  night  we  marched  to  Boufarick,  in  the  plains,  and 
the  next  day  reached  the  point  of  destination.  The  column  consisted,  in  all, 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  7 

The  taking  of  Milianah,  and  the  occupation  of  the 
plain  of  the  ChelifT  had  been  proposed  for  this  late  expe 
dition  on  its  setting  out ;  and,  with  the  natural  excitability 
of  their  temperament,  the  French  looked  to  this  with 
hopeful  expectation,  for  it  was  something  new.  Medeah 
had  not  for  them  the  same  interest,  as  it  had  on  a  previous 
occasion  come  under  their  power.  This  excitement  was 
kept  up  till  the  very  last ;  all  communication,  other  than 
by  telegraph,  being  cut  off  the  moment  an  army  emerges 
on  the  plain.  The  army  itself,  in  this  its  unexpected 
return,  was  the  first  to  bring  the  news  of  the  contrary ; 
then,  in  a  moment,  expectation  gave  way  to  disappoint 
ment.  Disgust  was  loudly  murmured  around,  and  the 
marshal's  recall  was  momentarily  expected.*  The 

of  about  two  thousand  men  ;  two  hundred  horse,  being  the  broken  detach 
ments  of  invalided  men  who  had  been  left  behind  by  the  cavalry  regiments, 
in  the  advance.  The  2Oth  of  May  we  set  out  on  our  return.  We  were 
under  arms  at  four  o'clock,  or  early  day-break  ;  three  hours  were  occupied 
in  putting  the  sick  into  wagons  and  other  hospital  conveyances,  but  after 
that,  the  march  was  a  forced  one.  The  column  had  been  attacked  the  pre 
ceding  day  by  some  five  hundred  Arabs,  but  the  skirmishing  was  very  slight, 
and  every  now  and  then  " obusiers-de-montagne  "  (mountain-howitzers)  would 
be  wheeled  up  into  position,  and  scatter  their  main  body  right  and  left,  and 
intimidate  for  the  while  their  skirmishing.  Friday,  we  were  again  attacked 
by  a  somewhat  smaller  body  of  the  tribe  of  the  Hadjouts,  who  followed  us 
up  the  first  part  of  the  morning,  until  we  had  crossed  the  river  Chiffa.  Be 
fore  leaving  the  Houish  de  Moussaiah,  we  beheld,  on  the  summit  of  the  Col 
de  Teneah,  a  heavy  cloud  of  dust,  which  was  supposed  to  be  that  of  a  divi 
sion  of  the  army  of  Marshal  Valee,  presumed  to  have  been  sent  after  the 
provisions  we  had  convoyed.  The  surprise  of  all  was  very  great,  when,  on 
the  day  following,  it  was  ascertained  to  have  been  the  whole  army  itself, 
thus  unexpectedly  returning.  This  day's  march  was  a  handsomely  forced 
one,  for  by  eight  o'clock  in  the  evening  (just  about  twilight)  we  reached 
Douera,  a  distance  of  thirteen  leagues,  (thirty-nine  miles,)  one  hour's  stop 
ping  being  made  in  all,  and  half  an  hour  the  longest  time.  Thus  had  I  been 
unexpectedly  initiated  into  service.  I  marched  on  foot  entirely.  However, 
this  forced  marching  was  only  for  the  3d  lights  and  the  cavalry,  the  other 
regiments  halting  at  Boufarick,  or  moving  to  the  Ferme  Modele,  and  other 
nearer  posts  in  the  neighborhood. 

*  It  was  vulgarly  reported  that  the  marshal,  on  the  day  of  his  departure, 
a  week  afterwards,  for  his  second  expedition,  forbade  a  steamer  to  land, 
for  fear  that  she  might  have  brought  the  authority  of  his  withdrawal.  The 
marshal  was  distrusted  as  a  general.  All  granted  him  to  be  an  artillery 


8  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

princes*  left  the  24th,  the  absence  of  the  Due  d'Orleans 
having  been  limited  by  the  French  authorities  before  he  left 
Paris,  which  time  was  now  nearly  expired.  This,  and  the 
heats  of  the  advancing  season,  no  troops  having  ever  been 
kept  so  late  as  June  in  the  field,  seemed  to  embarrass  any 
further  movements,  but  the  marshal  saw  that  the  little  he 
had  accomplished  with  the  immense  means  that  had  been 
placed  at  his  disposition  would  not  justify  him  to  his  king 
and  the  French  people ;  and  that  the  disgust  openly 
shown  at  Algiers  by  citizens  and  military  alike,  was  but  a 
prototype  and  precursor  of  the  heavy  indignation  that 
would  burst  forth  at  home  on  the  news  of  his  inactivity 
or  incapability  transpiring  there.  All  this,  then,  deter 
mined  to  a  second  expedition,  which  accordingly  opened 
the  ist  of  June,  1840. 

On  Monday,  the  1st  of  June,  the  troops  f  were  put  in 

officer  of  no  common  talents,  for  he  had  distinguished  himself  in  conduct 
ing  one  of  the  principal  sieges  on  the  Rhine  in  times  of  the  emperor,  and 
had  subsequently  modified  materially  the  French  system  of  artillery.  But 
this  is  looked  on  as  a  speciality,  and  mere  accident  alone  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  the  army.  It  was  that,  at  the  siege  of  Constantine,  as  chief  of 
artillery,  he  was  second  in  rank  to  General  Dauremont,  and  on  his  death 
was  of  course  the  one  to  succeed.  Constantine  was  taken,  and  though  the 
appointment  was  distrusted,  he  was  created  marshal,  and  continued  gov 
ernor-general. 

*  The  prince  had  volunteered  for  Africa,  much  in  the  bravery  and  gal 
lantry  of  all  that  family  ;  more,  however,  as  a  means  of  popularity  with 
the  French  people,  and  much  to  enable  Louis  Philippe  to  proudly  say : 
"  J'ai  envoy  d mon  fils  aind."  Their  real  service  in  Africa  must  not,  how 
ever,  be  exaggerated.  The  Due  d'Orleans  commanded  a  division,  and 
fought  it  bravely  in  the  affair  of  the  Col  de  Teneah,  of  the  I2th.  The 
Due  d'Aumale  (about  twenty)  had  acted  as  his  aid,  (pfficier  d'ordannaneej) 
but  the  Marshal  Valee  was  much  opposed  to  their  serving  with  him,  and  all 
allowed  that  their  presence  was  detrimental,  they  not  acting  subservient  to 
the  plans  of  the  commanding  general,  but  causing  all  the  army  to  act  in 
relation  to  them,  watching  to  secure  their  safety. 

f  General  Schramm,  with  much  difficulty,  from  my  want  of  an  authoriza 
tion  from  the  French  government,  and  from  the  dislike  and  sourness  of  the 
marshal  to  foreigners  in  general,  (there  were  two  Danish  and  seventeen 
Belgian  officers,  and  a  Russian  traveller  and  officer,  the  Count  d'Oelsen,) 
obtained  permission  for  me  to  join  the  army.  I  was  accordingly  attached, 
just  the  day  before  we  set  out,  to  the  ist  Chasseurs  d'Afrique,  under  Colonel 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  $ 

motion,  and  debouching  from  their  different  cantonments 
in  the  vicinity  of  Algiers,  and  their  posts  in  the  highlands 
next  the  sea,  concentrated  at  Bouffarick  and  Blida,  the 
days  of  the  2d,  3d,  and  4th. 

June  4th. — The  army  having  been  united,  the  whole 

Pays  de  Bojolli.  At  eight  o'clock  on  Monday  morning  we  left  their  forti 
fied  cantonment  near  Algiers,  and  by  a  by-path  proceeded  directly  up  the 
high  hill  surrounding  the  city,  regaining  the  main  road  some  seven  miles 
back.  We  passed  by  Douera,  leaving  it  somewhat  to  the  right,  descended 
into  the  plain  of  the  Metidjah,  and  entered  Boufarick  that  afternoon. 
About  the  same  time  the  celebrated  Zouaves  arrived  from  their  large  post 
to  the  west  of  Douera.  I  was  attached  to  the  fourth  squadron  of  this  regi 
ment  of  chasseurs,  commanded  by  the  veteran  Captain  Assena,  an  old  im 
perial  officer  of  cavalry.  No  regiment  can  be  long  in  Africa,  especially 
those  formed  particularly  for  this  war,  that  does  not  present  some  striking 
characters.  Of  those  who  were  with  us,  not  above  a  half  of  the  full  com 
plement  of  officers,  for  many  were  absent  on  sick  leave  in  France  ;  many 
were  always  retained  as  requisite  at  the  depot  of  the  regiment,  and  many 
were  hors  du  combat  from  the  late  preceding  campaign  ;  but  take  these  as 
they  were.  Colonel  Bojolli  had  been  aid  to  Marshal  Bessieres,  and  was  at 
his  side  when  killed,  in  1814.  Captain  Assena  had  entered  the  army  at 
sixteen,  and  with  five  brothers  made  the  campaign  of  Wagram.  He  had 
served  in  the  hussars,  and  had  been  engaged  in  an  actual  shock  of  cavalry 
"charging,"  it  being  in  defence  of  the  emperor's  person.  He  had  a  year 
or  so  before  been  with  his  squadron  attacked  by  a  superior  number  of  Arabs 
and  been  surrounded,  cutting  his  way  out.  An  interesting  circumstance  about 
him  was,  that  three  of  his  brothers  had  been  killed  in  the  imperial  wars  and 
circumstances  prevented  the  other  two  meeting  until  this  very  year,  when 
he  arrived  in  Africa  as  captain  of  a  fresh  regiment  of  infantry.  A  young 
Captain  Desbrow,  of  this  regiment,  had  nearly  been  killed  and  taken,  when 
he  was  rescued  by  the  then  Colonel  (now  General)  Lamoricier.  He  had 
headed  with  his  section  a  small  charge  of  cavalry  en  fourageur,  (skirmish 
ing,)  and  his  platoon  was  beaten  back  ;  an  Arab  in  the  melee  shot  his 
horse,  the  ball  passing  through  both  his  own  thighs,  and  through  and  through 
the  horse.  The  Arabs  seeing  him  down,  all  made  a  rush  at  him,  but  it  be 
ing  in  a  thin  wood,  by  a  wonderful  chance  he  eluded  all  their  blows ;  at 
last,  an  Arab  seized  him  by  the  neck  with  one  hand,  and  was  just  about 
piercing  him  with  his  yategan,  when  Colonel  Lamoricier,  who  was  com 
manding  the  rear  guard,  seeing  his  men  returning  without  him,  and  observ 
ing  all  the  Arabs  rushing  to  the  spot,  feared  something  of  the  kind,  ordered 
a  rescue,  and  himself  spurred  foremost,  just  arriving  in  time  to  bring  the 
Arab  to  the  ground  ere  the  fatal  blow  was  given.  Colonel  Lamoricier  then 
helped  to  raise  him  on  his  horse,  and  returned  in  safety.  Desbrow's  wound 
was  a  very  severe  one,  but  he  completely  recovered.  One  of  the  lieutenants 
of  the  regiment  was  remarkable  from,  perhaps,  the  heaviest  scar  of  a  sabre- 


10  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

was  put  in  movement  about  mid-day  of  the  morning  of 
the  4th.  The  light  cavalry  brigade,  composed  of  two 
regiments  of  march,  being  the  six  squadrons  of  1st  Chas 
seurs  d'Afrique,*  as  many  squadrons  of  hussars  and  chas 
seurs,  (arrived  that  year  from  France,)  amounting  in  all  to 

cut  that  ever  seamed  a  soldier's  face  without  taking  life  ;  it  had  been  a  hori 
zontal  blow,  cutting  right  down  through  the  nose,  which  was  hollowed 
nearly  even  to  his  face  and  ridged  up  with  a  ghastly  seam  nearly  equally 
either  cheek.  It  was  done  many  years  previously  near  Douera,  whilst  with 
a  party  of  unarmed  chasseurs,  taking  their  horses  to  a  watering-place,  in 
very  sight  of  the  garrison.  In  a  moment  they  were  surrounded  ;  but  two 
men  succeeded  in  forcing  their  horses  through,  one  badly  wounded  ;  the 
picket  guard  galloped  out  to  their  rescue.  One  man  unhorsed,  the  only 
one  armed,  being  the  "  lieutenant  of  the  week,"  was  still,  though  wounded, 
keeping  them  at  bay  ;  all  the  rest  had  been  massacred  on  the  spot.  This 
one,  then  a  sergeant,  was  taken  up  lifeless,  and  unrecognizable  from  blood 
and  dirt.  Another,  Dumont,  had  been  in  the  French  expedition  to  the 
Morea,  when  Ibraham  Pacha,  the  same  who  now  figures  so  largely  as  son 
of  Mehemet  Ali,  was  ravaging  Greece.  It  was  one  of  the  captains  of  this 
regiment,  and  now  present  with  the  expedition,  who  had  been  conveyed  as 
emissary,  blindfolded,  to  Milianah.  One  of  the  Chefs  d'Escadron,  Com 
mandant  Maurice,  was  distinguished  from  having,  in  a  melee  which  took 
place  whilst  acting  with  his  squadron  as  skirmishers,  personally  grappled 
with  three  Arabs,  two  of  whom  he  killed  ;  the  third,  however,  a  wiry, 
powerful  man,  had  succeeded  in  prostrating  the  commandant  and  might  have 
killed  him,  as  Maurice's  sword  had  been  broken,  but  for  the  chasseurs,  who 
galloped  to  the  rescue.  He  had  been  very  intimate  with  our  Mrs.  Bryant, 
and  the  rest  of  General  Reibell's  family,  and  spoke  English.  But  of  all 
striking  characters,  was  the  Commandant  Boscarin,  chief  of  the  two  squad 
rons  of  Spahis  attached  to  our  regiment.  He  had  been  born  in  the  French 
West  India  Islands,  and  spoke  English  somewhat.  He  was  truly  the  per 
sonification  of  a  gallant  looking  Arab.  The  Spahis  are  troops  partly  com 
posed  of  natives,  uniformed  in  the  Arab  costume,  red  vests,  blue  Turkish 
pants,  Bedouin  bopts,  and  the  Arab  "  bournous."  The  commandant  had 
become  a  complete  Arab  ;  thus,  in  mounting  his  horse,  instead  of  throwing 
the  leg  over  the  croup,  he  stepped  over  his  Turkish  saddle.  In  tent,  he 
always  sat  cross-legged  ;  was  always  smoking  his  hookah,  and  sipping  his 
sherbet  ;  like  the  Arabs,  his  head  was  shaved  bare,  and  polished,  when 
uncovered  of  his  "  fessee"  (Arab  cap,)  around  which  they  bind  the  turban. 
The  commandant's  moustache,  too,  was  truly  Turkish,  thin,  long,  and 
drooping.  He  was,  withal,  a  very  polished  man  and  amusing,  and  had 
much  interest  at  court. 

*  The  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  were  mounted  on  Arab  horses  about  fourteen 
hands  to  fourteen  and  a  half  high,  bony,  and  generally  ewe-necked,  being 
the  barb  horse,  not  the  Arab  breed  of  the  desert,  but  nearly  equally  valua 
ble  in  his  great  qualities  of  endurance. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MI  LI  AN  AH.  II 

about  twelve  hundred  horse,  inclusive  of  two  squadrons 
of  Spahis  under  the  Commandant  Boscarin,  which  gener 
ally  encamped  with  us,  though  rarely  joined  with  us  in 
column  of  route  ;  the  whole  were  commanded  by  Gen 
eral  Blancford,  and  on  this  day's  march  formed  the  column 
of  the  right.  We  were  flanked  by  a  line  of  infantry 
tirailleurs  (or  skirmishers)  at  some  fifty  paces  distance, 
ourselves  marching  in  column  of  squadrons.  The  centre 
column  was  composed  of  the  convoy  itself,  being  the 
provisionment,  transported  in  the  heavy  wagons  (pro- 
longes  *)  of  the  train  d'equipage,  and  by  the  bat-mules — 
the  "  ambulances"  f  (or  flying  hospitals)  in  the  centre, 
distinguished  by  the  red  flag — and  the  artillery  train  in 
the  order  of  their  weight,  12-pounders,  6-pounders,  and 
mountain  howitzers  (obus  de  montagne  J)  with  accompa 
nying  caissons.  The  guards  immediately  in  escort  were 
the  soldiers  of  the  wagon  and  hospital  train,  the  artiller- 

*  The  "prolonges"  of  the  train  cT equipages  (wagon-train)  were  somewhat 
larger  than  the  common  wagon  used  by  our  ist  dragoons,  with  deeper 
sides,  and  a  rounded  wooden  lid,  bound  with  iron  hoops  ;  when  used  to 
transport  the  sick  or  wounded,  the  lid  was  fastened  up.  The  bat-mules 
were  also  under  the  guidance  of  the  soldiers  of  the  wagon-train.  I  never 
saw  mules  packed  in  such  a  perfect  manner.  I  studied  this  subject  on  the 
campaign,  it  being  the  one  that  throws  so  many  obstacles  in  our  way  of  em 
ploying  pack-mules,  and  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  scarcely  a  single 
pack  to  turn.  I  have  obtained  the  model,  and  it  is  now  ready  for  the  War 
Department. 

f  The  ambulances  are  composed  of  the  charret  d1  ambulance,  or  "  hospital 
cart,"  an  easy  cart  on  springs,  for  the  worst  cases  among  the  officers  and 
men,  and  the  mules  with  the  litters,  the  same  as  the  models  I  have  pre 
sented  the  department.  The  hospital  attendants  are  a  regular  corps  by 
itself,  being  soldiers  who  have  arms,  but  attend  solely  to  the  hospitals  in 
garrison,  and  guard,  besides  assisting  at  the  flying  hospitals  in  campaign. 
The  litters  ("  caracoli  ")  are  attached  on  each  side  of  the  mule,  and  carry 
two  wounded  or  sick  men.  As  the  French  are  obliged  to  take  great  care 
to  prevent  their  wounded  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Arabs,  there  are  al 
ways  several  of  those  caracoli's  in  attendance  whenever  the  rear  guard  or 
flanks  are  engaged,  and  nothing  can  exceed  the  coolness  and  reckless  cour 
age  of  these  men  standing  fire,  in  coming  right  up  in  the  thickest  of  it,  as  if 
desirous  of  displaying  as  much  courage  as  those  more  immediately  engaged. 

\  The  obusier-de-montagne  is  generally  drawn  by  a  mule  in  shafts,  and 
leader,  but  the  leader  is  fitted  with  a  saddle,  on  which,  in  mountainous 
parts,  the  piece,  when  taken  off  its  wheels,  can  be  packed  on  the  mules' 


12  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

ists,  and  the  corps  du  Genie,  which  marched  at  the  head 
to  prepare  the  routes  in  relation  to  this  column  particu 
larly,  as  the  movements  of  the  rest  of  the  army  depended 
on  the  progress  of  this.  The  gendarmes  too,  (about  one 
hundred)  were  charged  with  the  immediate  police  of  this 
body,  they  being  charged  with  everything  which,  in  the 
English  and  our  own  service,  comes  under  the  provost 
marshal's  department.  The  convoy,  the  provisionment 
part  of  it,  was  moreover  increased  by  some  five  hundred 
beefs,  driven  on  the  hoof.  There  were  battalions  at  the 
head,  rear,  and,  by  intervals,  immediately  on  the  flanks  of 
the  column  of  the  convoy. 

The  rest  of  the  infantry  marched  by  brigades  in  two 
columns  (of  platoons)  on  the  right  and  on  the  left  of  the 
centre  column  ;  and  the  space  covered  by  the  columns, 
marching  as  we  were  in  the  full  plain  of  the  Metidjah, 
measured  about  a  league  and  a  half  from  the  one  on  the 
extreme  right  to  that  on  the  extreme  left.  There  was  the 
rear  guard,  and  an  advance  guard,  with  which  were  the 
native  cavalry.  The  "  Gendarmes  Maures  "  *  and  the 
Spahis,  (about  a  hundred  and  fifty  in  all,)  were  the  ha 
bitual  leaders  of  the  advance.  The  march  was  not 
hurried,  we  made  about  a  league  an  hour,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  the  passing  of  the  Chiffa  ;  for  the  river,  though 
small  and  shallow,  being  in  the  bottom  of  deep  banks,  we 
were  obliged  to  wait  till  the  convoy  slowly  filed  by.  We 
ourselves  were  obliged  to  "  break  by  platoon,"  and  then 
again  "  by  file,"  to  pass  down  the  single  track.  On 

back.  They  proved  very  useful  and  efficient,  and  I  should  think  them  use 
ful  to  be  attached  to  cavalry  regiments  with  us.  The  reason  for  heavy 
pieces  of  artillery  came  from  the  Marshal's  expecting  very  possibly  to  find 
Milianah  regularly  defended  like  Constantine,  and  only  to  be  attacked  by 
regular  approaches. 

*  The  gendarmes  Maures  were  in  their  complete  Bedouin  dress,  uniform 
only  in  their  wearing  a  blue  "  bournou."  They  were  composed  and  of 
ficered  entirely  of  natives,  under  the  charge  of  a  French  staff  officer. 
Their  duties  in  the  cities  was  ordinary  police,  and  they  were  said  to  be 
efficient.  In  campaign  they  acted  solely  as  light  cavalry.  A  black  sergeant 
in  this  corps  struck  me  as  the  finest  modelled  large  man  I  had  ever  seen. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  13 

having  passed  the  defile  and  descended  into  the  bottom, 
the  order  was,  "  form  squadrons,"  coming  by  files  in  each 
squadron  "  front  into  line  ; "  and  effected  by  thus  wait 
ing,  till  the  rearmost  squadron  had  filed  through  and 
formed  up.  The  other  side  was  not  so  difficult,  and  after 
watering  our  horses  in  the  Chiffa,  and  receiving  the  order 
to  move  on,  we  arrived  at  the  "  Houish  de  Moussaiah  " 
about  six  o'clock,  or  an  hour  or  so  of  dark.  It  was  the 
first  grand  encampment  that  we  made,  the  whole  force 
under  arms  s  amounting  to  twelve  thousand  men.  In 
Africa,  where  the  enemy  is  an  irregular  foe,  and  masters 
of  a  partisan  warfare,  the  order  of  European  encamping, 
(where  one's  rear  is  always  secured,)  has  to  be  remodelled 
through  the  necessity  of  being  equally  defended  on  all 
sides.  From  this  reason,  the  troops  are  always  drawn  up 
in  a  square,  or  oblong,  facing  outward.  On  this  occasion, 
however,  the  fort  of  Moussaiah,  an  entrenched  work, 
formed  the  rear.  The  infantry  *  bivouacked  in  line  on  the 
other  three  outer  sides.  Within,  and  at  the  distance  of  a 
hundred  yards  from  them,  the  cavalry  brigade  was  pick 
eted,  and  artillery  parked  on  the  left  ;  whilst  towards  the 
right,  and  additionally  protected,  were  arranged  the  pro- 
visionment,  and  "  ambulances."  Interior  of  all  was  a 
large  clear  quadrangular  space  of  some  six  hundred 
yards,  large  enough  to  manoeuvre  easily,  had  there  been 
occasion.  After  we  were  encamped,  the  colonel  f  com- 

*  There  was  not  a  single  tent  with  the  army  excepting  those  of  the  hos 
pitals,  those  of  general  officers,  and  one  allowed  the  officers  of  squadron, 
and  a  demi-battalion  of  infantry.  The  luxury  was  not  as  great  as  it 
seemed,  it  seldom  coming  up  until  extremely  late.  The  place  for  the  lead- 
horses,  and  servants,  and  officers'  baggage  was  with  the  main  body  of  the 
convoy. 

f  There  was  an  instance  to-day  of  even  the  oldest  officers  being  at  times 
bothered.  Our  first  direction  was  to  rest  fronting  to  the  left,  with  two 
squadrons  thrown  back  "  en  potence"  facing  to  the  front,  and  we  were 
coming  up  perpendicular  to  the  left  flank.  We  had  already  formed  the 
potence  by  the  two  first  squadrons  coming  on  "  right  into  line  ;  "  and  two 
more  had  formed  up  front  into  line,  when  a  staff  officer  galloped  up,  direct 
ing  the  colonel  to  take  ground  considerably  to  the  left  immediately.  Without 
thinking,  he  faced  the  two  squadrons,  formed  front  into  line,  and  ordered 


14  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

manded  half  the  men  of  each  squadron  to  go  and  collect 
forage  for  the  horses  from  some  grain  fields  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  camp.  The  captain,  "  adjutant  major," 
of  the  day  was  in  charge  of  the  whole,  and  each  squadron 
under  the  lieutenant  of  the  day.  (In  garrison,  those  tours 
are  for  the  entire  week,  and  they  are  styled  "  officiers 
de  semaine.")  And  it  is  generally  that  the  foragers  are 
only  accompanied  by  these  officers.  There  was  also  a 
small  escort.  In  campaign,  there  is  a  reaping  knife  to 
every  four  or  five  men,  carried  in  front  outside  the 
"  musettes,"  (bags  for  the  curry-comb,  &c.),  and  strapped 
tight  into  place  by  the  same  straps.  The  men,  having 
collected  the  forage,  returned  with  it,  bound  up  into 
trusses  with  the  forage  straps,  and  fastened  behind  their 
saddles. 

June  5th. — Reveille  sounded  at  half  past  four  o'clock, 
but  we  did  not  commence  our  march  until  about  seven 
o'clock,  having  thus  had  time  to  breakfast  comfortably. 
The  order  of  the  march  was  the  same  as  yesterday,  only 
more  precaution,  if  possible,  for  Moussaiah  was  the  last 
post  in  the  plain,  and  all  the  country  west  of  the  Chiffa 
had  generally  this  spring  been  the  war-ground  of  the 
Arabs,  particularly  the  Hadjouts.  However,  this  day 
there  were  no  Arabs  seen,  excepting  some  Bedouins,  whose 
figures  stood  in  bold  relief  on  the  distant  heights,  easily 
distinguished  through  our  field-glasses.*  The  Moorish 

by  platoons  "left  wheel  trot,"  and  marched  them  rapidly,  halting  them, 
and  forming  them  into  line  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  ground  allotted  to 
him.  In  the  meanwhile  the  5th  and  6th  squadrons  came  up  into  line  in  the 
space  thus  left  ;  those  ' '  en  potence  "  standing  fast  ;  these  then  followed  the 
movement,  and  those  "  en  potence"  by  a  left  turn,  after  wheeling  into  col 
umn  of  platoons,  succeeded  to  their  place,  so  that  we  stood  in  line  com 
mencing  on  the  left,  as  4th,  3d,  6th,  5th,  2d,  ist.  The  colonel  did  not  at 
first  perceive  it,  but  when  he  did,  it  piqued  him  exceedingly,  and  his  haste 
and  mistakes  afterwards,  in  trying  to  remedy  the  order  of  things,  only  pro 
duced  confusion  worse  confounded,  until  the  matter  righted  itself.  His 
pride  was  on  the  alert,  as  this  faux  pas  was  in  the  presence  of  the  French 
squadrons,  who  were  following  us  in  column. 

*  Every  officer  carried  a  glass,  not  that  they  were  required  to,  but  its 
utility,  and  the  interest  it  afforded,  former  experience  had  strongly  proved. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  15 

gendarmes,  who  were  in  the  advance,  and  to  the  extreme 
left,  pursued  some  of  their  videttes,  who  were  stationed 
in  the  plain.  The  march  of  the  army  continued  in  the 
plain  of  the  Metidjah,  its  direction  westerly,  and  as  if  its 
bearing  was  to  Cherchell.  The  plain  is  here  intersected 
by  many  ravines,  and  the  delay  of  one  column  produced 
that  of  the  whole.  The  cavalry  marched  by  column  of 
platoons  ;  our  regiment,  the  right  one  of  the  brigade,  was 
the  leading  one,  having  habitually  at  its  head  General 
Blancford  and  Colonel  Bojolli.  At  every  halt,  occasioned 
by  waiting  for  other  columns,  or  whilst  we  ourselves  were 
passing  defiles,  the  brigade  was  formed  into  close  column 
of  squadrons  ;  ourselves,  in  passing  defiles,  first  formed 
close  column  of  squadrons,  the  leading  squadron,  and  the 
rest  successively  would  then  break  first  "  by  platoons," 
("par  pelotons  romper  1'escadrons,")  then  by  fours,  and 
as  the  defile  narrowed,  by  files ;  the  files  so  broken 
generally  passing  rapidly  through  at  a  trot.  As  each 
squadron  emerged  from  the  defile,  it  was  ordered,  "  by 
squadron,  front  into  line."  The  captain  adjutant-major 
being  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  order,  each 
captain  commanding  a  squadron  giving  it  by  usage,  from 
seeing  the  squadrons  before  him  so  formed.  Towards 
the  afternoon,  by  a  change  of  direction  in  the  march,  we 
turned  towards  the  left,  and  entered  at  once  into  a  region 
unknown  to  the  French,  and  soon  commenced  winding 
among  the  gorges  of  the  mountains,  which  were  to  lead 
us  across  to  the  plains  of  the  ChelifT,  and  its  capital  city, 
Milianah,  the  object  of  our  destination.  Towards  sunset 
it  commenced  raining,  and  our  bivouac  at  Karrombet-el- 
ousseri  was  taken  up,  during,  perhaps,  the  most  violent 
rain-storm  I  ever  experienced,  such  indeed  as  could  alone 
occur  in  that  far  southern  latitude.  The  encampment 
was  in  a  small  opening,  surrounded  by  steep  hills,  the 
cavalry,  artillery,  and  convoy  being  crowded  into  an 
almost  solid  mass  in  the  small  valley,  with  brigades  of 
infantry  'occupying  the  sides  and  summits  of  the  heights, 
and  forming  with  their  pickets  and  outposts  one  con- 


1 6  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

tinuous  line  all  around  the  camp.  From  the  manner  in 
which  the  campment  ground  was  allotted,  not  a  little 
confusion  took  place,  from  the  crossing  of  different  col 
umns,  as  they  intersected  the  march  of  others,  all  hurrying 
to  get  themselves  settled  before  the  intense  darkness  of 
the  night,  which  was  fast  thickening  upon  us.  Thus,  we, 
improperly  taking  advantage  of  somewhat  too  large  an 
interval  in  the  column  of  artillery  that  was  passing,  con 
tinued  our  march  through  them,  keeping  an  immense 
column  in  their  rear  halted,  until  they  in  their  turn  found 
an  opportunity  of  making  a  dash  through  us,  cutting  off 
a  part  of  our  squadrons,  which  did  not  get  a  chance  of 
coming  up  for  full  an  hour  ;  presenting  one  of  the  in 
stances  of  trouble  from  the  non-observance  of  a  salutary 
regulation,  that  general,  or  high  field  officers,  or  superior 
staff  officers  be  posted  at  such  points,  to  make  divisions, 
pass  rapidly,  by  alternate  platoons,  through  each  other. 
But  it  was  a  terribly  stormy  night,  and  generals  and  all 
were  for  taking  care  of  themselves,  and  trusting  all  to 
themselves.  The  first  chasseurs,  encamped  in  column  of 
double  squadron,  occupying  the  entire  breadth  of  the  valley. 
When,  thus  encamped,  the  rear-rank  is  reined  back  about 
twelve  paces  (rearward  from  the  heads  of  horses  in  the 
front  rank)  somewhat  more  than  open  order ;  and  the 
space  between  the  stacks  of  arms  and  row  of  saddles 
which  is  at  the  head  of  the  front  rank,  to  the  horses  of 
the  rear  rank  of  the  preceding  column,  is  at  the  disposition 
of  the  men  and  officers  ;  the  officers,  however,  having  the 
choice  of  any  part  of  it — poor  consolation  indeed,  to  be 
entitled  to  twelve  *  feet  or  so  of  mud  in  a  rain  storm,  and 
without  tents.f 

*  I  find  a  disagreement  between  my  short  hand  notes  in  my  camp  journal, 
and  the  original  draft  of  a  Report  on  the  "  Interior  of  Cavalry  Regiment  in 
campaign."  I  should  think,  however,  that  my  notes  must  be  correct,  as  the 
other  might  have  been  an  error  corrected  in  the  copy,  but  I  never  paced  off 
either,  but  set  down  the  distances  from  my  eye.  I  know,  too,  it  varied  much, 
depending  how  we  were  crowded  by  other  regiments  ;  the  opening  of  ranks, 
however,  agrees  in  both  cases. 

f  If  there  is  room,  the  officers  are  also  permitted  to  bivouac  immediately 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  I/ 

June  6th. — At  an  early  hour  the  next  morning  we  were 
under  arms,  and  the  pieces  that  were  continually  being 
discharged  betokened  the  expectation  of  an  engagement, 
for  our  guides  had  informed  us  of  the  vicinity  of  several 
Arab  villages,  and  it  was  certain  that  if  our  movement 
through  these  passes  were  suspected  by  the  enemy,  that 
the  Kabyles  would  meet  us  in  large  force.  I  could  not 
help  being  struck  by  the  impropriety  of  this  random  firing, 
so  expressly  in  violation  of  all  regulations,  for  it  must 
have  been  a  signal  to  any  enemy  lying  near  that  we  were 
on  the  move,  and  as  some  several  pieces  would  happen  to 
be  fired  rapidly  at  the  same  time  in  the  direction  of  the 
pickets,  one  could  scarcely  refrain  from  grasping  his  arms, 
and  looking  towards  his  horse.  We  now  entered  in  ear 
nest  amongst  the  mountains,  now  scaling  difficult  heights, 
now  following  narrow  ridges,  and  then  again  plunging 
down  fearful  precipices  into  some  isolated  valley.  This 
way,  known  as  the  "  Pass  of  the  Robbers,"  had  been  but 
lately  betrayed  to  the  French,  and  was  a  route  scarce  ever 
travelled  by  the  Arabs  themselves,  as  it  was  infested  by  a 
bandit  population  hostile  to  the  inhabitants  of  either 
plain  ;  but  now  that  a  third  enemy  was  in  question,  and  a 
common  religion  united  them  all,  we  were  liable  to  a  fear 
ful  resistance  in  these  fastnesses.  It  was  no  place  for 
cavalry,  and  we  now  became  as  part  of  the  convoy — whilst 
the  flanks  of  the  march  were  guarded  by  strong  columns  of 
infantry,  not  marching  in  mass  by  brigade,  but  by  regi 
ments,  in  succession  at  long  intervals,  connected  by  bat 
talions,  in  light  order,  as  tirailleurs,  so  as  to  cover  the 
convoy,  which,  owing  to  the  narrowness  of  the  ways,  had 
lengthened  out  their  column  to  near  two  leagues.  For 
the  convoy  proper  the  best  paths  were  reserved,  whilst 
the  cavalry  brigade,  keeping  close  by  its  side,  were  some 
times  pushed  up  here,  or  down  there,  along  the  side  hills, 

on  the  flank  of  their  squadron,  but  within  some  very  few  feet  of  it.  The 
tents  belonging  to  the  officers  did  not  come  up  till  long  after  it  was  pitch 
dark.  Our  tent  was  pitched  in  mud,  ankle  deep,  which  we  made  barely 
tenable  by  laying  grass  and  bushes  over  it. 


1 8  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840  I 

on  the  margin  of  difficult  water  courses,  now  on  the  right, 
now  on  the  left,  anywhere  where  we  could  possibly  find 
footing,  to  enable  the  dangerous  lengthening  of  the  col 
umn  to  be  curtailed.  As  often  as  the  ridge  was  of  suffi 
cient  width,  or  the  slope  of  the  hill  side  not  too  abrupt, 
the  men,  habitually  broken  up  in  files,  were  made,  without 
loss  of  time,  to  form  twos,  fours,  even  platoons,  and  at 
every  halt  occasioned  by  some  accident  to  the  convoy, 
or  delay  in  the  strong  working  parties  hewing  out  the 
road,  we  were  jammed  and  crowded  up  into  close  column 
of  squadrons.  On  the  Arabs  the  moral  effect  of  cavalry, 
(they,  like  other  wild  or  oriental  people,  attaching  greater 
importance  and  bravery  to  the  individual  who  is  mounted,) 
is  perhaps  even  greater  than  it  deserves ;  moreover  this 
feeling  of  respect  for  this  arm  had  been  greatly  increased 
by  the  fortunate  charges  of  the  chasseurs  and  French 
squadrons  in  preceding  wars,  and  during  the  past  winter 
and  early  spring.  All  this  better  reconciled  us  to  the  idea 
of  the  inaction  to  which,  in  case  of  an  attack,  we  would 
be  condemned,  entangled  as  the  army  was  in  the  moun 
tains  ;  besides,  we  consoled  ourselves  with  the  expecta 
tion  of  having  our  affair  after  debouching  into  the  plain 
of  the  Cheliff. 

The  events  of  the  morning  proved  true  to  our  forebod 
ing,  for  after  proceeding  a  short  distance  a  solitary  dis 
charge  from  an  out-flanker,  and  then  a  more  general  dis 
charge  from  the  line  of  "tirailleurs,"  which  warmed  at 
times  into  a  spirited  engagement,  took  place,  first  on  our 
right,  and  then  commenced  soon  afterwards,  though  less 
briskly,  on  our  left.  The  columns  were  generally  at  a 
quarter  of  a  league  from  the  convoy,  but  the  course  of  the 
combats  was  easily  marked  by  the  line  of  smoke  and  fire, 
especially  when  the  inequalities  of  the  ground  we  might 
then  be  passing,  gave  us  a  command  of  the  prospect.  We 
were,  in  especial,  witnesses  of  one  affair,  an  episode  in  the 
fighting  of  the  day.  We  had  just  formed  up  in  a  narrow 
ridge,  which  terminated  a  chain  of  heights ;  a  valley  of 
moderate  width  lay  on  either  side  of  us,  joining  just  in 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  19 

front  of  where  we  were  halted,  and  then  running  way  off 
to  the  eastward,  gradually  narrowing  until  it  lost  itself  in 
between  two  mountains,  on  the  side  of  one  of  which,  in 
the  extreme  distance,  was  observable,  by  its  glittering 
white,  an  Arab  marabout,  or  sacred  temple  of  worship. 
We  had  just  dismounted  to  await  the  convoy,  as  it  drew 
its  slow  length  along,  and  with  our  glasses  were  watching 
the  progress  of  the  columns,  which  we  had  in  complete 
view  on  either  side,  with  their  skirmishers  actively  en 
gaged.  But  the  object  of  our  interest  was  a  body  of 
"  Tirailleurs  de  Vincennes  "  on  the  hill  side  to  the  right, 
as  they  emerged  from  a  wood  and  prepared,  in  face  of  a 
determined  fire  from  the  Arabs,  to  pass  over  a  bare  space 
and  possess  themselves  of  a  group  of  farm-houses  on  their 
route.  They  "  advanced  firing  "  in  a  close  line  of  skirm 
ishers  ;  they  passed  over  most  of  the  distance,  and  had 
nearly  attained  the  object  of  their  attack,  when,  seeming 
ly  staggered  by  the  desperate  fire,  they  ceased  to  move  on, 
though  their  fire  rolled  more  rapidly  than  ever.  At  this 
moment  the  rest  of  the  battalion  issued  from  the  woods, 
and  a  mounted  officer,  distinguishable  from  wearing  a 
straw  hat,  *  a  Spanish  custom  introduced  by  the  "  Legion 
Etrangere  "  dashed  forward  into  the  smoke  of  the  com 
batants.  A  general  charge  was  perceived,  they  advanced 
at  a  run ;  the  farm-houses  were  seized.  But  when  the 
smoke  had  somewhat  cleared  away,  we  perceived  a  group 
returning  slowly  to  the  main  body,  and  by  our  glasses  dis 
tinguished  that  it  carried  as  its  burden  the  young  officer, 
who  but  an  instant  before  had  so  gallantly  led  on,  known 
to  us  by  that  mark  which  had  proved  so  fatal  for  him, 
the  straw  hat  carried  by  a  soldier  of  the  party.  I  have 
never  known  a  moment  of  such  intense  excitement,  and  I 
believe  every  one  of  us  was  affected  the  same,  as  this  real 
panorama  was  acting  in  the  presence  of  us  inactive  spec- 

*  It  had  seemed  to  me  exceedingly  strange,  when  I  had  noticed  on  the 
previous  day's  marches  that  many  of  the  officers  wore  straw  hats  ;  but  the 
fate  of  this  young  officer  proved  that  if  a  luxury,  it  was  also  a  reckless  and 
dangerous  bravado  in  a  fight. 


20  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

tators.  This  was  one  of  the  two  officers  and  many  men 
killed  during  the  day.  That  evening  we  encamped  at 
"  Oued  Guerr,"  or  the  "  Six  Arabs,"  so  called  from  six 
Bedouin  chiefs,  who,  approaching  as  nearly  as  they  dared, 
seemed  reconnoitering  our  forces.  In  the  fore  part  of  the 
day  the  country  had  been  difficult  in  the  extreme,  but 
towards  evening  the  mountains  opened  out  into  longer 
and  broader  valleys,  and  our  encampment  was  on  a  rivu 
let's  side,  whose  course  we  had  been  following  down  for 
some  miles.  I  had  been  surprised,  too,  to  find  that,  in 
such  a  rugged  region,  Arab  villages  (generally  composed 
of  wretched  hovels)  were  of  such  frequent  occurrence,  and 
every  single  acre  that  could  be  cultivated,  either  on  the 
mountain  tops  or  in  the  narrow  valley,  was  planted,  and 
then  teeming  with  a  rich  crop,  as  indicative  of  a  numerous 
native  population.  The  marabout  too,  or  sacred  house 
of  Arab  worship,  with  its  solemn  mystic  air  and  its  ac 
companying  palm,  as  seen  peering  in  the  distance,  strikes 
one,  as  does  the  sculptured  Sphinx  of  Egypt,  wherever 
you  may  meet  it,  a  symbol  untranslatable  of  the  solemn 
mystery  and  genius  of  Africa.  We  were  encamped  in 
two  lines  of  three  squadrons,  as  were  also  the  French 
squadrons  in  our  rear.  We  had  been  kept  in  column  full 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  after  arriving  on  the  ground  of 
encampment,  where  the  advance  guard  had  been  ordered 
to  halt,  from  there  not  being  a  staff  officer  sent  to  inform 
us  in  what  quarter  of  the  camp  we  would  bivouac.  We 
arrived  a  little  after  the  sun  had  set,  which  it  did  most 
serenely. 

June  7th. — The  march  of  the  /thof  June  was  much  the 
same  as  that  of  the  preceding  day,  excepting  that  the 
mountains  changed  into  less  difficult  ascents,  and  opened 
into  more  extensive  valleys ;  we,  the  cavalry,  took  up  a 
position  for  the  offensive,  as  in  case  of  an  attack  on  the 
convoy,  though  we  again  were  covered  by  a  small  force 
of  infantry  to  our  right.  The  skirmishing  commenced 
occasionally  during  the  march,  but  by  no  means  with  the 
determined  pertinacity  of  the  preceding  day.  The  Spahis, 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MI  LI  AN  AH.  21 

who,  towards  the  middle  of  the  day,  were  once  again 
placed  in  the  advance,  pursued  some  Arabs,  killed  several, 
and  took  a  horse  or  two.  Towards  noon  we  entered  a 
tolerably  easy  country ;  the  stretches  of  the  valley  run 
ning  in  the  direction  of  our  march,  and  what  mountains 
we  passed  over  were  gradual  slopes  and  easy  of  ascent;  but 
the  heat  was  terrific,  reflected  as  the  sun  was  from  the 
burning  soil  ;  and  not  a  hundred  yards  could  be  passed 
over  without  seeing  some  unhappy  wretch  rolling  in  con 
vulsions  on  the  ground,  or  crying  like  a  child  in  the  de 
moralization  of  a  violent  brain  fever.  There  they  were, 
alone  and  unbefriended  ;  for  the  march  being  a  forced 
one  this  day,  they  were  left  as  they  grew  sick,  first  to  loi 
ter  behind,  and  then,  as  they  became  more  helpless,  their 
regiments  would  be  out  of  reach.  The  others  that  might 
be  passing,  pressed  as  they  were  themselves,  whispered 
down  any  pity  that  might  arise  for  them,  as  that  it  was 
not  their  duty,  and  that  the  rear  guard  (some  hours  be 
hind)  would  certainly  have  them  conveyed  to  the  surgeons, 
or  that  the  ambulances,  (already  painfully  crowded  by 
even  these  few  days'  fatigue,  and  more  especially  the  rain 
storm  of  the  night  of  the  8th,)  might  pass  in  that  direc 
tion  and  take  them  too.  The  superior  officers,  I  presume, 
were,  from  long  service,  steeled  to  such  scenes  ;  and  as 
for  the  other  officers,  they  might  utter  an  oath  of  anger 
at  the  oversight  of  those  who  had  control,  but,  like  others 
before  them,  had  to  pass  by  unheedingly  the  dying  as  the 
dead.  From  the  numbers  whom  we  passed  exhausted 
and  at  death's  door  towards  the  noon  of  that  day,  the 
hospitals  must  have  been  increased  some  two  or  three 
hundred,  together  with  the  dead.  War  is  a  theatre  of 
contrasts,  and  one,  a  foreigner  like  myself,  could  not  but 
be  struck  with  it ;  exhibiting  in  the  same  moment  with 
the  preceding  scene  of  misery,  the  gay  vivandiere  of  each 
regiment,  who,  flauntingly  dressed  in  the  manly  uniform 
coat  of  some  regiment,  with  the  skirts  of  her  own  sex,  pro 
tected  by  a  broad  sombrero,  would  jauntily  march  by  with 
her  loaded  mule,  the  pride  and  solicitude  of  her  whole 


22  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,   1840: 

corps.  The  engagements  were  not  many  to-day,  but 
groups  of  Arabs  were  seen  every  here  and  there,  as  if 
watching  with  dismay  the  swell  of  war  rolling  in  the  direc 
tion  of  their  proud  city.  On  the  other  hand,  our  excite 
ment  became  more  aroused,  for  one  lofty  peak,  which 
towered  alone  in  the  distant  range  that  verged  the  hori 
zon,  was  now  pointed  out  to  us  as  being  the  mountain 
from  which  jutted  out  the  so  estimated  impregnable  site 
of  Milianah.  The  sun  was  fast  sinking  in  the  west,  and 
we  were  now  mounting  the  slope  of  the  last  mountain. 
Our  regiment  was  on  the  right,  and  rather  in  the  advance, 
the  Spahis  having  been  despatched  to  watch  the  movement 
of  some  Arab  horse,  to  the  left.  A  detachment  of  the 
far-famed  Zouaves,  whom,  however,  I  had  not  seen  in 
action  as  yet,  were  now  acting  as  our  advance  tirailleurs. 
Apparently  no  foe  was  near  us,  when  suddenly  the  wild 
figures  of  some  hundred  Arabs,  who  had  been  concealed 
by  the  break  of  the  ground  and  behind  some  rocks,  sud 
denly  rose  up  before  us,  and  at  only  half  pistol  shot 
poured  in  a  rattling  volley  in  the  faces  of  the  Zouaves 
and  in  direction  of  our  column.  They  were  staggered, 
covered  themselves  behind  obstacles,  and  continued  thus 
firing  for  a  moment,  without  pretending  to  advance,  when 
suddenly  one  of  their  number,  waving  his  musket  over 
his  head,  and  with  a  shout  of  defiance,  made  a  dash  out 
of  his  cover,  and  thus  rushed  forward,  making  a  sole  indi 
vidual  charge,  apparently  leaping  right  down  in  the  midst 
of  them.  A  general  shout  of  applause  burst  forth  from 
all  the  troops  in  sight,  whilst  his  comrades,  infected  by 
the  example,  enthusiastically  followed.  The  Arabs,  the 
next  moment,  were  seen  winding  around  the  hill,  running 
off  in  great  confusion,  and  closely  pursued  by  the  Spahis, 
who  at  the  first  alarm,  had  come  up  in  full  gallop,  turning 
their  position  to  intercept  their  retreat.  It  was  this,  per 
haps,  which  saved  the  bold  Zouave ;  who,  otherwise,  must 
have  been  massacred  before  his  comrades  had  followed 
to  his  assistance.  We  were  now  on  the  summit  of  Mount 
Al-Cantara,  from  which  we  viewed,  stretching  out  below 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MI  LI  AN  AH.  2$ 

us,  the  whole  plain  of  the  Cheliff,  bounded  in  the  distance 
by  the  "  higher  "  or  "  second  range  of  the  Atlas,"  arising 
as  a  wall  in  a  marked  line  precipitately  and  abrupt.  A 
cry  of  unbounded  enthusiasm  burst  from  the  troops,  as 
for  the  first  time  they  beheld  that  unknown  region,  the 
long  talked  of  object  of  French  wishes,  the  end  and  des 
tination  of  our  campaign — the  seat  of  Milianah.  But  as  it 
there  lay  before  us,  though  yellow  from  the  ripe  crops  of 
grain,  and  in  reputation  richer  than  the  plains  of  the  Me- 
tidjah,  its  appearance  was  solemn  and  forbidding,  from 
the  absence  of  all  verdure  and  of  water,  save  where  the 
river,  that  gives  it  its  name,  rolled  sullenly  in  the  centre, 
embedded  and  nearly  hidden  in  its  deep  muddy  banks. 
Instead  of  the  wild-fig,  and  the  olive,  and  the  deep  green 
groves  of  the  orange-tree,  which  are  continually  found  in 
the  plain  of  the  Metidjah,  skirting  the  many  little  streams, 
or  thriving,  in  spite  of  the  heats  of  the  climate,  in  the 
vicinity  of  springs — here,  not  a  single  shrub  or  stunted 
tree  occurred  to  break  the  vast  monotony.  The  sun  at 
this  moment  was  just  retreating  over  the  hills  towards 
Oran.  A  little  later  it  had  ceased  to  be  reflected  in  the 
skies,  and  it  was  late  twilight  ere  we  took  up  our  position 
in  bivouac  as  an  outpost  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain. 
The  morrow,  we  were  to  reach  Milianah. 

June  8th. — The  grey  of  dawn  had  no  sooner  cleared 
away  before  we  were  in  full  march,  but,  to  our  disappoint 
ment,  as  we  entered  the  plain,  turning  to  the  westward, 
the  clouds  of  dense  smoke  that  arose  high  above  the  hills 
to  the  right,  where  we  knew  Milianah  to  be  situated,  told 
too  plainly  that  the  town  had  been  fired.  Our  march  was 
now  doubly  quickened,  the  Spahis  of  the  advance  pushing 
on  at  a  trot,  and  the  infantry  nearly  at  a  pas  de  cvurs,  we 
reached  the  entrance  of  the  gorge  that  formed  the  sole 
and  a  difficult  approach  to  the  city.  The  marshal,  General 
Schramm,  and  the  general  staff  of  the  army,  at  once  galloped 
up,  with  a  strong  escort,  to  the  summit  of  the  height  at 
the  right  of  the  entrance  to  the  gorge,  to  get  a  coup  d'oeil 
of  the  ground,  and  determine  on  measures  for  the  attack. 


24  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

There  the  city  was  before  us,  perched  on  a  plateau  that 
jutted  from  the  side  of  a  mountain,  that  arose  perpen 
dicularly  behind  it.  The  smoke  now  curled  high  up  in 
wreaths,  while  the  lurid  glare  of  the  fire  shone  at  every 
crevice,  or  burst  forth  forking  from  the  roofs.  Whilst  in 
the  midst  of  this  scene  of  confusion,  by  the  aid  of  our 
glasses,  from  the  height  on  which  the  marshal  and  his 
staff  were  assembled,  the  dark  uniforms  of  the  regular 
infantry  of  Abd-el-Kader  might  be  distinguished,  as  they 
were  seen  driving  out  before  them  the  reluctant  inhabi 
tants  of  the  place.  The  city,  like  all  Moorish  towns,  was 
beautiful  in  the  extreme,  for  nothing  can  be  more  pictu 
resque  than  the  irregular  outline  of  their  houses,  as  of 
masses  grouped  together  in  the  very  soul  of  variety,  with 
their  low  tiled  roofs  reminding  one  of  scenes  in  Italy ; 
minarets,  seen  shooting  up  from  the  mass,  or  peering  from 
the  midst  of  the  cypress  and  the  myrtle,  told  of  times 
when  the  Saracen,  proud  as  his  own  crescent,  had  made 
his 'history  the  interest  of  all  nations.  The  city  was 
enveloped  in  flames,  their  own  act ;  but  an  Arab  was 
never  known  to  yield  a  mountain  retreat  without  blood 
shed,  and  a  fight  to  avenge.  Measures  were  therefore 
instantly  taken.  The  principal  part  of  the  infantry, 
formed  into  two  heavy  columns  of  attack,  were  marched 
over  heights  to  the  right  and  left  of  the  gorge,  whilst 
another  portion  was  left  at  its  mouth,  to  repel  the  Arabs 
who  had  molested  our  rear-guard,  whilst  breaking  up  from 
camp,  but  who  more  particularly  now  were  appearing  in 
great  numbers  from  the  direction  of  Oran.  They  already 
showed  themselves  to  be  the  principal  force  of  the  Bedouin 
cavalry  coming  up,  and  might  now,  taking  all  in  sight, 
amount  to  some  six  or  seven  thousand.  The  cavalry, 
artillery,  and  convoy,  in  the  meanwhile  filed  through,  and 
all  concentrated  again  in  closely  packed  colums,  and  by 
crowded  divisions,  on  a  plateau  just  beneath  that  of  the 
town,  awaiting  and  holding  themselves  ready  for  the 
signal  of  the  onset.  At  the  same  time,  some  batteries  of 
artillery  were  placed  in  position  on  a  height  that  arose 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  2$ 

somewhat  to  the  left,  to  bear  upon  some  pieces  of  the 
enemy  which  commenced  firing*  on  us  from  two  different 
points,  and  to  cover  the  advance  of  two  heavy  columns  of 
attack,  which  commenced  scaling  the  heights.f  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  beautiful  than  the  advance  of  the 
infantry ;  the  right  column  directed  its  course  about 
half  a  mile  or  more  to  the  right,  attacking  the  town  di 
rectly  in  front,  but  it  was  more  hidden  from  our  view  by 
the  gardens,  and  groves,  and  vineyards ;  that  of  the  left 
was  the  whole  time  immediately  in  sight.  They  advanced 
with  arms  sur  Vepaule-droite,  ("  right  shoulder  shift  arms," 
or,  "  arms  at  will,")  a  company  or  two  were  thrown  out  in 
skirmishing  order  just  before  them.  But  for  the  scatter 
ing  fire  from  them  and  some  Arabs  under  cover  of  the  oc 
casional  underwood,  and  from  behind  rocks,  and  the  burst 
ing  of  the  shells,  which,  directed  with  wonderful  precision, 
seemed  always  thrown  just  immediately  before  the  head 
of  the  column,  one  might  well  have  supposed,  from  the 
quiet  demeanor  of  the  soldiery,  that  they  were  on  an  or 
dinary  march.  Such  is  the  character  of  the  French  sol 
dier  ;  and  this  perfect  nonchalance,  more,  perhaps,  than 
even  their  excitability  when  aroused,  makes  them  the  best 
service  troops  in  Europe.  Taken  as  a  whole,  the  scene 

*  The  fire  of  these  pieces  was  without  particular  effect.  Two  of  their 
balls  fell  sufficiently  near  to  us  ;  one  being  between  the  cavalry,  who  were 
in  close  column  of  squadrons,  and  the  ambulances  with  the  sick  and 
wounded,  the  space  between  us  being  but  some  fifteen  yards  ;  falling  in 
the  mud  of  a  spring  there,  it  did  not  ricochet.  The  other  ball  fell  in  the 
very  centre  of  the  marshal's  staff,  but  bounded  again  over  their  heads  with 
out  killing  or  wounding  one.  They  were  on  a  small  rise  close  behind  us. 

f  The  distance  from  the  foot  of  the  height  to  its  summit,  the  plateau  on 
which  the  town  was  situated,  was  from  half  a  mile  to  three  quarters.  We 
were,  as  we  now  stood,  scarcely  higher  than  at  the  entrance  of  the  gorge, 
but  the  columns  of  infantry  had  mounted  and  descended  considerable 
heights  before  they  all  united  on  this  lower  plateau.  The  length  of  the 
gorge  through  which  the  convoy  had  defiled,  must  have  been  near  a  mile  ; 
and  the  distance  from  the  height  on  which  the  staff  first  stood,  to  the  town, 
the  height  being  nearly  equally  high,  must  also  have  been  just  about  a 
mile  ;  the  ordinary  Arab  dress,  with  the  white  bournous,  is  so  different 
from  the  dark  uniform  of  their  regular  infantry,  that  they  are  easily  dis 
tinguished. 


26  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,   1840: 

was  spirit-stirring  in  the  extreme,  for,  though  bloodshed 
had  not  commenced,  there  was  all  the  preparation  for  war 
and  battle,  as  if  rivers  of  blood  were  soon  to  follow. 
Here  were  parked,  under  charge  of  some  regiments  of  re 
serve,  the  defenceless  portion  of  the  army,  the  convoy  of 
subsistence,  the  hospitals  of  sick  and  wounded,  the  pieces 
of  heavy  ordnance,  all  breathless  with  expectation.  Near 
them,  and  on  the  road-side,  in  column  of  squadrons,  stood 
the  cavalry  brigade,  holding  themselves  in  reserve  to,  at 
the  proper  juncture,  rush  forth,  and  by  ascending  the 
height  by  the  road,  take  part  in  the  fighting  on  the  upper 
plateau.  Some  half  a  mile  to  the  left  and  more  advanced, 
were  placed,  actively  manoeuvring  their  pieces,*  and  firing 
incessantly,  the  batteries  of  cover  for  the  attack,  not  the 
least  animating  part  of  the  scene,  as,  by  the  ricochet  of 
their  shots,  or  the  bursting  of  the  shells,  one  traced  the 
execution  they  were  doing.  Forming  part  of  this  great 
living  panorama  were  the  divisions  that  were  now  actively 
ascending  to  storm  the  heights,  and  it  was  on  this  that 
all  of  our  attention  became  concentrated.  When  they  had 
nearly  reached  the  crest,  the  drums  beat ;  arms  flashed  in 
the  sunbeams,  as  they  were  shifted  for  the  attack,  and  the 
men,  in  a  solid  body,  rushed  forward  to  the  charge.  It 
was  truly  a  sight  worth  years  of  peace.  They  disappeared 
over  the  hill,  a  momentary  silence  ensued,  the  artillery  no 
longer  firing.  In  some  few  moments  a  desultory  firing 
that  arose,  though  both  parties  were  out  of  sight,  proved 
to  us  that  the  opposition  had  been  but  weak,  and  that  the 
enemy  were  now  firing,  fighting  in  retreat.  The  column 
of  the  right,  which,  though  more  hidden  from  view,  had 
not  been  less  active,  had  also  gained  the  town,  and  their 
firing,  heard  off  to  the  right,  proved  that  the  Arabs  were 
retiring  in  that  quarter  from  the  town.  At  this  moment 
a  staff  officer  came  at  full  speed  across  the  plain,  and  rid 
ing  up  to  General  Blancford,  at  the  head  of  the  column, 

*  There  were  some  eight  pieces  in  battery  ;  one  of  them,  by  some  mis 
management  or  other,  recoiling,  whilst  firing,  rolled  off  the  edge  of  the 
height,  and  came  rumbling  to  the  bottom. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  2f 

delivered  orders  which  set  us,  too,  in  full  motion ;  and  at 
a  gallop  we  overcame  the  short  distance  to  where  the 
path  wound  up  the  hill.  Squadrons  were  at  once  broken 
into  fours,  and  at  a  full  trot,  which  soon  became  a  gallop, 
increasing  in  briskness  with  the  excitement  of  the  general 
and  our  colonel,  who  were  leading  us,  we  forced  our  horses 
over  the  rocky  and  broken  road.  As  we  reached  the  sum 
mit,  and  rapidly  formed  line  to  the  left,  the  rearmost 
horsemen  of  the  column  were  bringing  up  at  a  full  run. 
The  colonel's*  orders,  in  the  plan  of  the  battle,  had  been 
to  advance,  and,  forming  upon  the  plateau,  charge  to  the 
right  or  left,  as  might  suit  the  occasion,  to  cut  off  the  re 
treat  of  the  Arabs.  But  to  our  great  chagrin,  when  we 
arrived  and  formed  up,  though  firing  was  going  on  with 
in  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  us,  the  ground  was 
such  as  to  preclude  the  utter  possibility  of  cavalry  move- 
ments.f  This  was  the  last  move  of  the  day,  the  retreat 
ing  Arabs  were  soon  driven  out  of  reach,  and  though  the 
convoy  did  not  all  get  up  till  late,  the  army  was  encamped 
as  fast  as  the  different  corps  came  into  position.  As  for 
ourselves,  we  were  made  to  bivouac  in  an  Arab  grave 
yard,  bristling  with  tomb-stones,  (not  only  head  and  foot 
stones,  but  long  side  ones  to  boot ;)  still  any  place  was  a 
rest,  and  the  excitement  of  the  day  needed  it. 

June  Qth,  loth,  and  nth. — The  ninth,  tenth,  and 
eleventh  were  spent  at  Milianah,  and  afforded  us  the  op 
portunity  of  examining  an  Arab  town  in  its  true  original 
state,  for  though  in  most  parts  every  thing  destructible, 
and  all  wood  work,  was  burnt,  still  the  thick  stone  walls 
and  roofs  of  many  of  the  houses  were  left  standing,  and 
some  edifices,  particularly  the  Dey's  were  almost  as  per 
fect  as  if  fire  had  been  set  to  it  but  in  mockery.  And  so 

*  I  belonged  to  the  4th  squadron,  but  at  the  moment  of  advance,  and  by 
samewhat  bolder  riding,  and  knowing  my  powerful  gray,  I  had  placed  my 
self  close  to  the  colonel  at  the  head. 

f  As  an  incident  not  worth  mentioning,  but  that  it  now  occurs  to  me, 
the  colonel,  seeing  some  three  or  four  Arabs  retiring  rather  leisurely,  sent 
a  corporal  and  four  or  five  men  to  quicken  their  movements.  Young 
Duegme,  though  not  ordered,  went  with  them,  more  as  a  frolic. 


28  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

it  was  suspected,  for,  whilst  the  Dey's  and  some  other 
principal  houses  were  thus  entire,  in  the  quarter  of  the 
Jews'  bazaar  not  a  stone  seemed  to  be  left  upon  another, 
and  the  streets  in  this  quarter  were  piled  with  ashes,  with 
now  and  then  just  sufficient  left  of  some  particular  article 
to  give  a  clue  to  the  business  of  the  vender.  As  the  grave 
yard  in  which  the  1st  chasseurs  were  encamped  was  just 
outside  the  town,  several  of  us,  after  seeing  our  horses 
tended  to,  strolled  into  the  city  ;  the  sentinels  at  the  gate 
(it  was  like  Medeah,  a  walled  town,  and  with  some  defen 
ces)  being  authorized  to  admit  officers,  but  them  only. 
But  our  curiosity  was  hazardous  for  ourselves,  for  as  we 
passed  in  some  quarters,  we  were  continually  exposed  to 
the  falling  of  burning  rafters  or  heated  walls  ;  and  once  or 
twice  escaped  imminent  danger  as  if  by  a  miracle,  for  the 
streets,  to  make  it  worse,  were  very  narrow.  An  impor 
tant  and  interesting  fact  was  now  discovered,  hitherto  un 
known,  that  Milianah  had  been  formerly  the  site  of  a 
Roman  town,  and  its  proof  was  continually  rinding,  on  the 
large  stones  with  which  the  houses  were  built,  Roman  in 
scriptions,  much  defaced,  expressed  much  in  their  usual 
difficult  abbreviations,  but  withal  a  word  here  and  there 
sufficiently  plain  to  be  easily  defined  by  the  casual  observer 
acquainted  with  the  Latin.  As  I  had  visited  all  the  dif 
ferent  quarters  in  Algiers,  the  palaces  of  some  former 
rich  Turks,  the  bazaar  where  yet  lingered  the  avaricious 
Jew,  the  casbar  of  the  Dey,  and  their  old-timed  forts  in 
the  harbor,  and  had  moreover  accurately  studied  Blida, 
though  there,  too,  it  was  a  mass  of  ruins,  (the  work  of 
the  French,)  I  was  more  quick  to  catch  at  and  fill  out  such 
parts  of  the  city  as  were  incomplete.  As  I  mentioned 
above,  some  few  edifices  were  still  perfect,  as  if  fired 
merely  to  comply  with  the  order  of  general  destruction  in 
form,  that  against  the  return  of  the  owners,  should  they, 
as  in  the  case  of  Cherchill  and  Medeah,  be  invited  back, 
they  might  be  found  available.  Perhaps  it  was  hurry,  or 
the  accidental  sufferance  of  the  flames,  no  doubt  the  atten 
tion  of  the  regular  soldiers  of  Abd-el-Kader  might  have 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  2g 

been  first  turned  to  the  Jews,  the  objects  of  suspicion, 
possessing  small  articles  of  value  that  might  be  seized 
with  impunity  to  their  own  use,  though  accounted  for  as 
consumed. 

To  him  who  has  perused  the  poetic  pages  of  the  Alham- 
bra, — what  subject  is  there  that  its  beautiful  author  does 
not  convert  by  the  beauty  of  his  imagery  and  his  glowing 
description,  from  the  every  day  monotony  of  prose  to  the 
enthusiasm  of  poetry,  though  he  equally  adheres  rigidly 
to  facts.  Whoever,  then,  has  read  of  that  proud  monu 
ment  of  Moorish  splendor,  and  has  followed  out  those 
delineations  as  pictured  by  the  English  pencil,  in  that 
splendid  work,  "  Sketches  from  the  Alhambra,"  may  trace 
for  themselves  an  idea  of  what  Milianah,  a  city  renowned 
for  its  riches  and  splendors  in  these  parts,  must  have  pre 
sented  ere  consumed  by  the  suicidal  act  of  its  inhabitants, 
and  still  exhibited  in  these  few  edifices  which  yet  remained 
entire.  Take  we  the  "  Palace  of  the  Dey."  After  wind 
ing  amidst  smoking  ruins,  and  the  crash  of  falling  walls, 
and  conducted  by  our  guide,  one  of  the  exploring  party 
which  had  first  entered  on  the  place  being  carried,  we 
came  to  an  avenue,  small,  as  all  the  Arab  streets  are,  but 
still  notable  from  its  superior  size  and  straight  course, 
instead  of  the  winding  and  zigzag  of  the  usual  thorough 
fares,  seeming  as  if  but  one  object  were  its  purpose,  the 
access  to  the  abode  of  its  chief  dignitary.  There  it  stood, 
at  the  head  of  this  avenue,  superior  in  the  elevation  of  its 
broad  towers  to  the  rest,  though  elsewhere  it  would  not 
have  struck  you  for  its  size.  Like  all  Moorish  buildings, 
even  the  rich  Casbar*  of  the  late  Dey  of  Algiers,  in  its 
exterior,  displayed  no  particular  embellishments  of  archi 
tecture.  The  heats  of  the  climate  induce  them  to  limit 
all  exterior  openings  beside  the  porch  to  narrow  loop 
holes.  The  effect  of  the  edifices  here,  and  of  those 

*  Casbar  is  the  general  name  for  "  palace."  That  of  the  Dey  of  Algiers 
contained  immense  treasures,  valued  at  some  twenty  millions  of  dollars, 
though  he  stipulated  for  but  five  millions.  Much  of  this,  as  did  all  the 
riches  of  the  city,  fell  a  booty  to  the  French  soldiers  in  1830. 


3<D  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

thousand  Moorish  country-seats  which  stud  the  heights  in 
the  bay  and  around  the  city  of  Algiers,  is  not  produced 
so  much  by  the  richness  of  gothic  execution,  with  its 
heavy  buttresses  terminating  in  worked  pinnacles  and 
other  external  ornaments  peculiar  to  that  style,  as  by  the 
picturesqueness  derived  from  the  irregularly  massing 
together  the  various  parts ;  some  differing  in  height,  all 
thrown  up,  as  if  in  defiance  of  precision's  dull  rules,  giving 
thus  that  same  appearance  of  tower  and  keep ;  the  grandeur 
of  the  whole  augmented  by  the  massive  stones  of  which 
the  structure  is  composed.  What  most  especially  gives 
character  to  this  style,  is  the  dead  white  color  with  which 
each  building  of  any  note  is  painted,  and  thus  Algiers 
stands  forth  a  whole  city  glittering  in  glory ;  though,  per 
haps,  many  may  complain  that  this  uniform  color,  and  the 
want  of  all  apertures  other  than  the  casual  loop-holes, 
most  produce  a  sensation  of  monotony  when  viewed  at  a 
distance  as  a  whole.  Certainly  this,  as  a  part  of  their 
architecture,  is  the  striking  feature  of  Afric's  soil  on  this 
part  of  the  Mediterranean.  As  adding  to  the  lustre  of 
the  isolated  structure,  it  does  so  with  a  most  enchanting 
effect ;  it  then  becomes  softened  and  relieved,  as  taken  in 
one  "  ensemble  "  with  the  deep  verdure  of  the  hills  of  the 
coast,  the  groups  of  this  tropic's  rich  foliage,  the  myrtle, 
the  cypress,  or  the  lone  palm  rising  in  startling  and  mystic 
grandeur.  But  to  return  to  the  Dey's  house  in  the  once 
fair  city  of  Milianah :  its  sole  particular  embellishment, 
besides  the  irregularity  of  its  towered  outlines,  was  an 
arabesque  fretwork  in  stone,  running  parallel  with  and 
just  below  the  battlements.  The  entrance  was  a  large 
portal,  with  broad  pilasters  supporting  the  half  circle  arch, 
the  feature  strictly  and  solely  of  the  Roman,  and  occur 
ring  here  and  at  Algiers,  but  only  in  employ  for  the  small 
arch  of  an  entrance ;  in  other  respects  the  arch  is  ever  the 
Moorish  or  Saracen.  Before  entering  here,  we  must 
remark  the  long  range  of  stabling  immediately  joining  the 
main  building  on  either  side,  like  wings.  The  effect  of 
the  exterior,  critically  examined,  was  far  from  rich ;  but 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  31 

how  different  the  scene  which  bursts  on  one  as  he  enters 
that  threshold  ;  flights  of  marble  stairs,  mosaic  pavements, 
arabesques,  glowing  in  color  and  beautiful  in  design, 
covering  the  walls,  whilst  bars  of  gilded  iron  and  brass, 
carved  cedar  and  rich  woods,  occupied  windows,  doors, 
and  recesses.  A  quadrangle  in  the  centre,  of  some  fifty 
feet  or  more,  gave  room  for  the  flowing  fountain 
and  marble  basin,  the  orange-trees  surrounding  it, 
the  grass  parterre,  and  faced  by  the  two  successive 
ranges  of  galleries,  with  their  arcades  formed  by  the 
double  horse  shoe  arch  of  the  Alhambra;  out  on 
this  opened  the  large  folding  doors  and  wide  windows 
of  the  Dey's  most  retired  apartments.  All  and  one  pre 
sented  a  whole  that  realized  to  us  Eastern  luxury,  and 
animal  enjoyment ;  the  Moor,  the  preserver,  to  present 
European  generations,  of  the  light  and  civilization  of  the 
ancients,  near  extinguished  in  the  dark  ages,  has  once 
more  retired  to  his  primitive  barbarism,  and  has  but  his 
Mohamedanism  as  food  for  mental  reflection.  This  in 
terior  was  a  scene  of  true  magnificence  ;  and  though  the 
despoiler  had  been  here,  he  had  done  his  work  but  lightly, 
and  fire  seemed  to  have  forgotten  its  all  devouring  ele 
ment.  When  we  had  passed  beyond  this  court,  and 
through  the  farther  portion  of  the  buildings,  issuing 
through  another  stone  portal,  we  found  ourselves  on  a 
terrace  formed  by  the  projecting  rock,  ornamented  with 
shrubbery,  and  arches  formed  by  the  vine.  Bending  over 
the  terrace  wall,  you  either  looked  down  the  precipice 
some  hundreds  of  feet  below,  where  dashed  wildly  along  a 
foaming  torrent,  edged,  where  the  mountain  side  would 
permit,  with  gardens  rich  and  inviting  to  the  eye ;  or, 
directing  the  eye  towards  the  west,  you  beheld  the  valley* 
beyond,  and  through  the  long  vista  of  the  gorge,  walled 
in  by  high  peaks,  saw  in  the  distance  the  wide  stretching 
plain  of  the  Cheliff.  Is  this  description  too  glowing  for  a 

*  The  plateau  whence  we  had  attacked  the  place,  and  whence  indeed  the 
Dey's  house  had  attracted  our  attention. 


32  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

mere  narrative  of  facts?  It  may  seem  so  to  one  who  saw 
it  not  as  we  did,  but  not  to  an  individual  of  us  who  was  at 
Milianah  on  that  occasion.  All  felt  as  I  did,  at  a  scene 
thus  new  to  us,  and  thus  calmly  rich,  forming  a  respite 
amidst  the  horrors  of  war,  of  sickness,  and  the  severe 
hardships  of  that  burning  clime.  How  well  do  I  remember 
our  bivouac  in  the  grave-yard ;  our  tent  was  pitched  on  a 
low  ledge  of  rocks  some  ten  feet  high,  forming  a  sort  of 
upper  plateau,  which  ran  along  the  flank  of  our  encamp 
ment,  and  here,  beneath  the  shade  of  a  wild  almond,  we 
passed  the  hours,  making  a  luxurious  feast  of  our  camp 
fare  by  an  additional  bottle  of  eau  de  vie,  or  claret,  or  the 
refreshing  absinth.  Here,  we  were  so  situated  as  not  only 
to  embrace  at  the  same  view,  the  walls  of  the  town,  the 
roofs  of  the  houses,  the  crescent,  left  with  a  Frenchman's 
indifference  to  religion,  still  pointing  forth  from  the  top 
of  some  tall  minaret.  How  different  Moslem  with  Chris 
tian  cross.  But  to,  in  a  word,  embrace  the  most  notable 
objects  of  the  town,  after  those  rich  private  dwellings, 
which  all  partook  much  of  the  character  of  the  Dey's 
house,  with  less  splendor,  I  must  single  out  the  descrip 
tion  of  the  main  fort,  the  stronghold  of  the  place,  and 
now  turned  over  to  the  French  artillery  to  repair  and 
strengthen  still  farther ;  then  to  a  visit  to  some  principal 
mosque,  of  which  one  or  two  in  a  great  measure  were  en 
tire,  and  to  a  description  of  the  many  fountains,  public 
baths,  cleared  and  purified  by  running  water ;  not  omit 
ting,  though  now  a  heap  of  ashes,  to  revive  the  bazaar, 
the  large  conduit  of  trade,  where  inhabited  that  merchant 
of  all  nations,  yet  an  alien  to  them  all,  the  Jew.  As  to 
these  first  mentioned  conveniences,  truly  may  that  be 
called  a  city  of  luxury,  where  they  were  so  numerous  as 
to  be  at  the  reach  of  the  poor  Jew  and  mendicant  as  well 
as  the  rich  despots  of  the  land.  As  an  institution  show 
ing  the  individuality  of  character  in  the  people,  these 
baths  certainly  would  have  struck  a  philosophic  mind 
as  the  first  and  chiefest,  and  recalled  the  days  of  the 
Roman. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  33 

The  mosques  of  the  place  by  no  means  compared  with 
the  one  re-constructed  by  the  French  in  Algiers.  As  re 
constructed,  for  in  their  toleration  of,  or  rather  indiffer 
ence  to  religion,  both  real,  and  in  policy  assumed,  they 
had  out  of  the  many  mosques  in  the  place,  taking  the 
handsomest  portion  of  each,  erected  one  most  beautiful 
edifice.  Here  the  Mahomedan  religion  was  kept  up  in  its 
strictest  forms,  the  princes  themselves  being  obliged  to 
enter  it  barefooted  ;  and  thus  in  Algiers  was  presented 
the  anomalous  spectacle  of  the  Catholic,  Protestant,  and 
Mahomedan  religions  all  in  the  same  place.  The  mosque 
consists  of  one  general  apartment  for  the  worshippers,  a 
more  holy  place,  (called  the  marabout)  for  the  priests 
of  the  religion,  a  sort  of  pulpit  whence  they  perform 
part  of  their  ceremony,  and  the  tower  constituting 
the  lofty  minaret,  which  renders  an  Arab  town  so  pic 
turesque.  The  half  moon,  too,  as  overtopping  all,  and 
above  alluded  to,  must  not  be  forgotten.  One  of 
these  mosques  seemed  to  be  a  Jewish  sanctuary,  the 
building  being  different  from  the  others,  but  also  so 
much  in  ruins  that  it  could  not  be  ascertained  posi 
tively. 

The  bazaar,  or  thoroughfare  of  merchants,  is  a  sight 
peculiar  to  the  thickly  peopled  cities  of  Africa  and  the 
East,  and  is  a  narrow  street  containing  small  apartments 
or  shops  closely  crowded  together  on  either  side,  elevated 
some  three  or  four  feet  generally  above  the  street,  scarcely 
high  enough  for  the  occupant  to  stand  erect  in,  whilst 
with  outstretched  arms  they  could  touch  either  side,  its 
length  being  scarcely  more,  though  it  opens  into  a  longer 
one  behind,  the  residence  of  the  family.  These  stores 
are  crowded  to  overflowing  with  all  articles  of  Arab  dress, 
the  rich  gold  tissue  turban  contrasting  with  the  coarse 
linen  garment  of  a  kabayle,  and  the  rich  brilliant  white  of 
some  most  richly  fine  "  bournous  "  in  juxtaposition  with 
the  shaggy  "  caban."  Some  shops  again  are  specially 
those  of  the  tobacco  merchants,  where  pipes  of  all  forms 
and  materials,  with  stems  from  the  rich  velvet  covered 


34  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,    1840: 

wood  with  amber  mouth  pieces,  or  the  flexible  silken 
hookar,  to  the  plain  cherry  with  its  bark  left  on. 
These  again  differ  in  variety  and  size  from  those  of  six 
inches  to  six  feet.  The  bowls  are  generally  stone,  or  a 
peculiar  red  clay,  or  of  a  hard  wood,  gilt,  and  lined  with 
some  metal,  the  generality  of  the  common  pipes  resem 
bling  much  our  Indian  ones.  Other  shops  are  shoe 
stores  ,  common  shoes  are  perfectly  like  European  coarse 
ones,  differing  most  widely  from  that  characteristic  of  the 
Moorish  chief,  the  fine  red  morocco  boots  coming  to  the 
knee,  richly  worked  in  gold,  and  often  bound  around  the 
leg  with  some  silk  and  gold  or  silver  wire,  with  the  silk  of 
as  brilliant  a  hue  ;  this  boot  again  being  protected  by  an 
over-shoe,  when  the  precincts  of  his  dwelling  are  left. 
Here,  also,  is  the  vegetable  market,  with  fruits  of  every 
variety  strewn  about.  But  in  this  quarter,  the  chief 
object  that  would  strike  the  stranger  would  be  the 
peculiar  manner  of  the  venders.  Unless  when  engaged 
in  showing  off  their  goods  to  their  customers,  they  seem 
like  so  many  automatons.  Apparently  lost  to  the  world 
in  the  fumes  of  their  pipes,  or  in  the  calculation  of 
their  accounts,  in  which  they  seem  all  absorbed,  their 
forms  move  not,  their  eyes  are  fixed  intent  for  hours 
in  one  direction,  and  they  are  rather  as  so  many  signs 
of  their  trade  than  actual  living  bodies.  Such  are  the 
bazaars  in  the  old  part  of  Algiers,  and  such  were  they 
at  Blidah,  where  one  street  of  this  kind  had  been 
left  entire,  and  such  my  fancy  easily  made  out  these  of 
Milianah. 

Whilst  on  the  characteristics  of  a  Moorish  town,  I  must 
not  omit  a  monument  of  Abd-el-Kader's  genius,  an  intro 
duction  from  the  European.  It  was  the  small,  but 
perfectly  finished  foundry  and  iron  works,  for  the  manu 
facturing  of  his  arms.  It  was  erected  by  European 
workmen,  hired  during  the  preceding  peace  at  high 
rewards,  and  since  then  carried  on  by  the  numerous  Euro 
pean  deserters,  under  the  guidance  of  one  who  had  been 
a  sergeant-major  in  the  Corps  du  Genie.  This  foundry 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  35 

was  supplied  with  water  by  that  rushing  torrent  mentioned 
in  the  descriptions  of  the  Dey's  residence  ;  but  its  descrip 
tion  does  not  strictly  belong  here,  as  it  stood  outside  the 
town.  Like  the  Dey's  house,  perched  on  a  rock  jutting 
out  from,  and  forming  an  angle  in  the  wall  of  rock  on  the 
left  side  of  the  town  ;  so  the  citadel,  or  casbar,  was  at 
another  extreme  point  of  the  city,  and  formed  an  acute 
angle,  whence  branched  off  the  precipice  to  the  right  and 
left,  giving  a  rather  triangular  form  to  the  city.  It  was  a 
strong  place,  pierced  with  port  holes  and  with  bastions, 
but  not  of  much  utility ;  for,  though  it  swept  some  peaks 
in  the  vicinity,  it  was  on  the  opposite  side  from  the 
plateau  on  which  the  town  is  placed,  could  not  bring  a 
gun  to  bear  in  case  of  an  attack  on  that  quarter,  and  was 
infinitely  too  high  above  the  lower  plateau  to  fire  down 
on  it  with  any  effect.  It  contained  an  inner  work,  whose 
walls  commanded  the  outer  ones,  as  they  did  the  town. 
It  was  now  in  possession  of  the  French  artillery,  and  had 
guns  already  mounted.  The  very  first  day  of  our  arrival 
here,  the  one  or  two  mosques  in  best  preservation  had 
been  cleared  out  for  hospitals  for  the  sick  and  wounded  ; 
and,  by  a  heavy  detail  from  the  infantry  battalions,  the 
defences  of  the  place  were  increased  on  the  side  towards 
the  plateau  by  a  deep  ditch  outside  the  walls,  and  by 
throwing  up  a  heavy  redoubt,  or  rather  redan,  to  the 
main  work. 

Such  are  the  hardships  of  the  infantry — fatiguing 
marches,  and  no  rest,  even  at  a  halt ;  whilst  we,  the  cav 
alry,  idled  away  the  time  in  the  various  little  nothings, 
that  kill  time  and  care  at  an  encampment.  From  our 
tent,  perched  on  a  broad  flat  rock,  which  served  as  ban 
queting  room  and  parlor,  we  surveyed  the  whole  camp, 
and  looked  but  on  one  spot  with  envy  ;  it  was  a  beauti 
fully  shaded  garden,  green  with  grass  and  vines,  in  which 
we  had  "  at  first  "  been  on  the  point  of  taking  up  our 
bivouac,  when  displaced  by  the  Marshal,  who  thought 
that  we  had  reason  in  the  selection  of  it,  as  being  the 
most  inviting,  and  therefore  took  it  for  himself  and  staff, 


36  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

leaving  us  to  go  to  the  devil,  or  the  next  place — the  grave 
yard.  Still,  never  were  there  happier  days  than  passed 
during  our  halt  at  Milianah.  Though  we  had  but  our 
one  kindly  shading  tree,  we  beheld  around  and  near  us 
the  cypress  and  myrtle,  and  felt  its  romance.  The  long 
twilight  of  summer  was  enhanced  by  the  continued  music 
of  the  splendid  band  of  the  "  Legion  Etrangere"  which 
played  till  a  late  hour  of  night ;  and  certainly  some  of 
the  richest  strains  of  music  I  ever  listened  to  were  here, 
in  the  far  interior  of  Africa. 

June  1 2th. — We  parted  from  Milianah,  leaving  a  garri 
son  of  some  thirteen  hundred  men  of  the  3d  light  infantry, 
and  a  battalion  of  the  "  legion,"  and  our  sick  and  wounded, 
who  were  numerous.  There  had  been  a  move  the  after 
noon  of  the  nth,  preparatory  to  getting  the  army  under 
way  again,  the  cavalry  and  some  infantry  having  been 
moved  forward  and  encamped,  after  descending  the 
mountain,  on  arriving  at  the  plateau  below.  Our  route 
was  now  to  ascend  the  plain  of  the  Cheliff,  cut  off  the 
resources  of  the  country  by  destroying  the  crops  and 
villages  far  and  near,  and  after  returning  to  Mousaiah  by 
the  noted  pass  of  the  Col  de  Teneah  for  supplies  to 
re-provision  Medeah,  and  then  re-establish  a  communica 
tion  between  these  two  lately  taken  cities. 

On  leaving  the  defile  of  Milianah  and  returning  once 
more  into  the  plain,  we  found  the  army  of  Abd-el-Kader, 
its  numbers  making  some  seven  thousand.  A  skirmishing 
soon  took  place,  but  was  confined  to  the  rear-guard.  As 
we  emerged  into  the  plain,  marching  in  several  strong 
columns,  the  artillery  and  convoy  in  order  of  some  three 
or  four  wagons  abreast  kept  on  the  road,  though  as  far  as 
a  dead  level  could  make  it,  one  part  of  the  plain  was  as 
another.  The  day  was  deadly  hot,  no  water  was  on 
the  line  of  march,  and  the  suffering  of  the  army  was 
extreme  ;  *  whilst  the  whole  plain,  from  the  troops 


*  It  is  strange  as  true,  that  there  was  in  the  course  of  the  campaign  one 
third  of  the  officers  left  behind,  sick  ;  one  third  constantly  sick  on  march, 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  37 

firing  the  grain,  farm-houses,  and  villages,  where  they 
passed,  had  the  appearance  of  a  burning  prairie  of  the 
far  west.  There  were  several  small  charges  of  cavalry, 
but  only  of  single  squadrons,  there  being  two  supporting 
the  rear-guard,  and  the  Spahis  and  "  gend'armes  Mores  " 
leading,  as  usual,  the  advance.  The  rest  of  the  cav 
alry  brigade  was  in  column  on  the  right.  An  instance 
of  the  beautiful  combination  of  rapid  manceuvering  re 
quired  in  this  country,  occurred  about  the  middle  of  the 
day.  The  left  column  of  the  French  nearly  touched  on 
the  base  of  the  mountains,  and  was  somewhat  felt  by  the 
Arab  skirmishers,  whilst  every  now  and  then  some  party 
of  them  would  engage  the  Spahis  on  the  advance  and  to 
the  left.  The  rear-guard  was  steadily  though  not  warmly 
engaged.  The  main  body  of  the  Arabs,  at  some  half  can 
non  shot  or  more  distant,  kept  hanging  on  our  right,  and 
rather  off  to  the  rear,  their  regular  cavalry  marching  as 
was  our  brigade  in  column  of  platoons,  whilst  the  Bedouins, 
like  clouds,  clustered  sometimes  here,  and  there,  as  they 
kept  up  the  march.  I  presume  the  distance  from  the 
advance  guard  of  the  left  column  to  the  place  where 
we  were,  was  about  a  mile  and  a  half.  Of  a  sudden,  the 
leading  platoons  of  the  brigade,  from  the  listless  walk  at 
which  we  had  been  going,  dashed  off  at  full  gallop,  with 
out  command,  but  squadron  following  on  squadron,  and 
platoon  on  platoon.  This  is  always  done,  the  presumption 
being  that  commands  had  been  given  to  the  head  of  the 
column ;  so  on  we  followed,  the  whole  brigade  on  a  full 
stretch.  It  was  not  for  some  few  moments  that  the  cause 
was  known,  though  it  was  presumed  that  there  was  to  be 
a  general  charge.  Our  attention  was  directed  to  the 

and  myself  the  only  one  of  the  squadron  officers  not  affected,  though  this 
day  I  was  near  fainting  at  times  from  want  of  water,  and  but  for  some  few 
drops  of  brandy  which  I  took  into  my  mouth  at  times,  the  only  liquid  that 
could  be  procured,  I  certainly  would  have  lost  all  strength.  I  can  only 

account  for  this  circumstance  of  my  not  being  sick  in  one  way.     Dr.  R 

had  told  me  that  it  was  a  great  hazard,  and  yet  that  possibly  my  previous 
course  of  medicine  might  prepare  me  for  the  climate.  In  sickness,  we  some 
times  escape  by  weakness  itself. 


38  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

Arabs.  To  a  man  they  were  moving  like  a  swift  cloud 
over  the  plain,  and  at  once  the  mystery  was  understood, 
and  it  was  presumed  that  their  object  was  to  cut  off  some 
portion  of  the  army  that  had  exposed  itself  to  Abd-el- 
Kader's  quick  eye.  On  we  kept,  and  for  more  than  a 
mile  presented  the  singular  and  interesting  appearance  of 
two  large  masses  of  horse,  moving  in  nearly  parallel  direc 
tions  at  full  speed.  We  then  saw  them  draw  up,  and  the 
brigade  was  similarly  brought  to  a  halt,  when  a  staff  officer 
of  General  Blancford  riding  up,  said,  "  Well,  we  saved  the 
Spahis."  It  appeared  that  they,  over  excited  in  pursuit, 
supposing  the  main  body  of  Arab  horse  out  of  reach,  had 
followed  too  far,  and  had  been  detected  by  the  Arabs 
nearly  to  their  cost,  and  would  have  certainly  been  cut  off 
but  for  this  prompt  movement  on  the  part  of  troops  more 
than  a  mile  off,  and  who,  but  for  the  coup  d'ceil  of  the 
general,  would  have  been  of  no  service,  as  out  of  support 
ing  distance.  This  was  one  of  the  many  instances  of  the 
peculiar  service  in  Africa,  and  proves  the  great  necessity 
and  value  of  the  most  perfect  coup  d'ceil  on  the  part  of 
leaders,  particularly  in  the  cavalry.  All  were  disappointed 
in  its  not  resulting  in  a  grand  charge  ;  but  the  French 
cavalry,  from  its  successes  during  the  past  fall  and  winter 
in  some  one  or  two  brilliant  skirmishes,  were  too  much 
dreaded,  to  be  opposed  by  a  regular  hand-to-hand  attack ; 
nor  did  they  ever  during  the  whole  spring's  campaign, 
come  in  actual  contact,*  further  than  to  sabre  the  wounded 
and  badly  mounted.  But  then,  again,  the  fear  of  being 
enveloped  by  immense  odds,  prevented  the  French  cavalry 
from  ever  leaving  their  infantry  far  out  of  distance  of  sup 
port.  Towards  late  in  the  afternoon  we  crossed  the  Cheliff, 
or  rather,  one  of  its  main  branches,  which  here  comes  in 
with  a  bold  bend  from  the  northward.  Our  encampment 
this  night,  whilst  it  afforded  what  we  could  rarely  count 

*  Indeed,  an  actual  shock  of  line  to  line,  without  either  wavering,  is  nearly 
as  rare  in  cavalry  as  in  infantry  ;  the  Imperial  officers  with  whom  I  have  con 
versed,  and  English  officers  who  served  in  the  Peninsular  War,  agreeing  that 
an  instance  scarcely  ever  occurs  during  a  whole  campaign. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  39 

upon,  the  luxury  of  plentiful  water,  left  us  deprived  of 
the  means  of  cooking,  from  the  absence  of  wood  or  brush. 
During  all  this  day  we  had  espied  at  times  a  heavy  column 
of  the  enemy's  infantry  moving  along  the  mountains  on 
our  left,  by  a  prompt  march  in  a  similar  direction  with 
ourselves. 

June  1 3th. — This  day,  as  bending  our  course  towards 
the  north  and  east,  we  left  the  plain,  which  stretched  more 
off  to  the  south,  and  entered  a  broken  country,  consisting 
of  undulating  sweeps  of  hills,  interrupted  by  ravines, 
ridges,  and  rocky  grounds. 

There  were,  as  usual,  constant  skirmishes  between  our 
rear-guard  and  the  Arabs,  and  at  times  a  firing  on  the 
flanks.  The  cavalry  brigade  continued  marching  in  col 
umn  on  the  right,  excepting  two  squadrons  which  re 
mained  in  support  of  the  rear-guard.  It  was  about  the 
middle  of  the  day,  when  their  services  were  particularly 
called  upon,  for  from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  it  several 
times  became  necessary  for  the  rear-guard  to  maintain  a 
position  until  so  far  left  behind  as  to  be  exposed  to  being 
cut  off  by  the  whole  force  of  the  Arabs,  whose  courage  is 
of  a  nature  to  dare  anything,  when  accident  seems  to 
throw  the  slightest  favor  into  their  hands.  Thus  the  rear 
guard  was  always  obliged  to  hold  a  ridge  or  other  height, 
from  whence  the  Arabs  might  obtain  a  downward  fire  on 
the  columns  of  march,  particularly  the  convoy  with  the 
sick,  wounded,  and  provisionment.  And,  in  turn,  parts  of 
these  troops  of  the  rear-guard  would  be  more  particularly 
subject  to  risk.  Indeed,  the  handsomest  manceuvering  of 
the  whole  campaign  took  place  on  this  day.  Nothing 
could  exceed  the  great  excitement  felt  by  every  one  not 
immediately  engaged,  as  we  thus  often  beheld  company 
after  company,  enveloped  by  Arab  horsemen,  successively 
disengaging  itself,  and  (if  the  Arabs  abated  but  an  instant 
their  fierce  attack,)  their  skirmishers  as  if  by  magic  as  in 
stantly  running  out,  taking  ground,  loading,  firing,  and 
marching  on,  until  beaten  in  again,  at  a  full  run,  by  some 
other  onset  of  the  charging  Arabs.  It  was  on  one  of 


40  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

these  occasions  that  the  4th  *  squadron  of  the  Chasseurs 
d'Afrique  extricated,  by  a  prompt  and  bold  charge,  acom- 

*  I  well  remember  this  affair,  as  it  was  the  most  decided  and  decisive 
charge  which  the  squadron  to  which  I  was  attached  made  during  the  cam 
paign.  There  was  a  succession  of  heights,  which  the  rear  guard  was  obliged 
to  maintain  as  usual.  The  several  columns  of  the  army,  with  the  convoy  in 
the  centre,  moving  in  parallel  order,  were  hurrying  down  a  long  sweeping 
descent  of  a  high  hill,  which  would  have  exposed  them  to  a  plunging  fire, 
but  for  the  manful  resistance  of  the  rear  guard  on  the  crest  of  the  height. 
The  main  part  of  the  rear  guard  were  now  put  in  retreat.  There  was  the 
infantry  in  column  of  demi-battalion  on  full  march,  and  the  two  squadrons 
in  column  of  platoons  a  little  in  advance,  and  also  a  very  little  on  their  right ; 
whilst  a  company  of  the  legion  was  itself  again  waiting  with  demeanor  of  de 
termined  resolution  to  give  us  something  of  a  start  ere  the  horde  of  Arabs 
should  crown  the  ground  that  we  had  evacuated,  and  thus  take  us  at  a  disad 
vantage.  It  was  a  dangerous  post  for  them,  but  the  late  repetition  of  the 
same  manoeuvre  once  or  twice,  and  the  hazardous  escape  of  a  demi-battalion 
a  moment  before,  who  were  left  to  defend  one  ridge  whilst  the  main  body 
of  the  rear  guard  established  themselves  on  another  nearly  as  high,  across  a 
narrow  valley  of  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  or  so,  emboldened  them. 
This  last  demi-battalion  had  held  its  position  longer  than  was  intended. 
The  Arabs  advanced  upon  them,  but  were  beaten  back  by  their  fire,  but  still 
seemed  intent  on  succeeding  in  the  charge.  The  demi-battalion  now  be 
came  fearful  of  rejoining  us,  and  seemed  as  if  dreading  an  overwhelming 
charge  the  moment  they  should  be  deprived  of  their  commanding  situation. 
Signs  were  made  to  them  by  the  colonel  commanding  the  rear-guard  ;  the 
assembled  trumpeters  sounded  the  recall,  and  still  they  did  not  move  ; 
whilst,  on  the  other  hand,  the  commanding  officer  of  the  rear-guard  scarcely 
dared  to  advance  to  their  assistance,  as  the  army  had  already  got  so  far  on 
their  march  as  to  even  then  render  us  rather  out  of  distance  of  support.  And 
though,  no  doubt,  a  charge  both  with  the  bayonet  and  with  the  horse  would 
have  been  ordered,  at  all  hazards,  to  their  rescue,  still  it  was  a  thing  to  hesi 
tate  about.  Our  infantry  stood  drawn  up,  and  the  cavalry  squadron  all 
ready  for  a  charge  ;  a  most  rapid  firing  kept  up  all  this  while,  by  the  party 
exposed.  At  last  they  checked  for  an  instant  the  Arabs,  and  rejoined  us  in 
order,  (that  is,  in  a  solid  body,)  but  at  a  "pas  de  cours."  After  that,  we  held 
our  position  a  little  longer,  and  were  then  put  in  march,  as  I  stated  before, 
the  infantry  by  demi-battalion,  and  the  two  squadrons  in  column  of  platoon. 
It  was  one  of  the  companies  of  this  same  lately  exposed  demi-battalion,  that 
was  again  acting  a  little  in  rear,  covering  the  main  rear-guard.  Before  we 
renewed  our  retrograde  movement,  the  Arabs  had  somewhat  drawn  off  from 
the  fight ;  and  we  were  all  as  little  expecting  to  be  called  on  to  act,  as  we 
had  been  disappointed  before  at  not  being  sent  to  the  assistance  of  the  late 
exposed  demi-battalion,  when,  of  a  sudden,  the  officer  of  the  rear-guard 
dashed  up  breathless  to  the  Commandant  Meurice,  (3)  (the  chef  d'escadron,  in 
command  of  the  squadrons)  and  hallooed  out,  in  the  no  very  tactical  terms 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  41 

pany,  (the  part  of  a  demi-battalion  of  the  Legion  Etran- 
gere,)  which,  in  such  a  situation,  as  they  had  expended  all 

of,  "  Save  the  infantry,  or  they  are  lost ;  save  them,  save  them  at  once." 
In  an  instant  the  commandant  gave  the  commands,  "  Escadrons,  par  paloton, 
demi  tour,  au  trot — marche  en  avant  au  gallop — au  charge"  The  3d  squad 
ron  had  been  at  the  head  ;  but,  as  in  a  moment,  all  were  on  the  qui  vive, 
and  we  came  wheeling  about  by  platoons  at  full  trot.  It  left  the  4th  squad 
ron  leading.  I  galloped  up  to  the  side  of  Captain  Assena,  as  he  led  on  the 
charge  ;  and,  sure  enough,  there  was  little  time  to  be  lost.  The  company  of 
infantry  acting  as  skirmishers  had  been  beaten  in,  and  already  had  the  ad 
vanced  Arabs  pierced  their  line,  cutting  many  down  ;  whilst  the  residue, 
rallying  in  its  support,  were  trying  to  show  a  good  face.  The  consumption 
of  all  their  cartridges  left  them  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  the  foe,  at  this  most 
untimely  moment.  As  we  came  up  on  the  flank,  in  a  slanting  direction,  I  cast 
a  rapid  glance,  so  as  to  embrace  them  all.  They  were  what  the  French  term 
4 '  demoralisd ;  "  that  is,  not  afraid  exactly,  but  ticklish.  There  stood  the  men, 
their  pieces  now  mute  from  want  of  powder,  standing  up  a  little  stiffer  than 
ever  on  a  parade,  with  their  sergeant-major  hallooing  out,  "dress  on  me," 
"dress  up"  "  t$te  a  droite"  &c.,  &c.,  with  a  very  peculiar  voice  ;  all  which 
contrasted  with  the  neglige  manner  exhibited  by  the  French  soldiers  in  ti- 
railluer  righting,  where  each  man  fires,  marches  on,  loads,  turns  round  and 
fires,  and  then  on  again,  for  all  the  world  as  if  they  were  the  most  uncon 
cerned  actors  in  the  whole  army,  notwithstanding  the  many  ugly  looking 
fellows  riding  close  up  and  popping  away  at  them,  and  ready  to  make  a 
dash  in  at  any  spot  where  carelessness,  or  the  dead  or  wounded,  make  a  gap. 
If  this  peculiar,  stiff,  martinet  manner  was  the  mode  of  showing  that  they 
were  ' '  demoralis^, "  the  picture  of  their  only  officer  commanding  the  com 
pany  seemed  more  in  accordance  with  a  man  who  expected  to  have  a  head 
less  company  in  some  few  minutes,  for  whether  as  an  outcry  to  the  colonel 
to  bring  up  help,  or  to  encourage  us  who  were  coming  up  to  hurry  along, 
there  he  stood,  throwing  up  his  two  arms,  and  making  violent  gestures,  ex 
claiming,  "  We  are  lost,  we  are  lost,  we  are  without  cartridges,  we  are  lost, 
we  are  lost,  &c."  Poor  fellow,  he  was  not  blamed  ;  for  he  and  his  whole 
company  had  exhibited  great  courage,  and  a  dashing  bearing,  during  all  the 
skirmishing  of  that  day.  On  we  dashed  ;  at  the  command  charge,  we  were 
nearly  upon  them  ;  but  the  moment  that  we  had  been  descried  coming  to 
the  attack,  they  had  gathered  their  horses,  and  turning  about,  got  out  of  our 
reach.  We  were  halted  after  we  had  dashed  on  some  two  hundred  yards  or 
so  and  driven  the  Arabs  pell  mell.  At  a  command,  a  platoon  trotted  out  as 
skirmishers,  and  on  slinging  their  muskets  (always  carried  over  the  shoulder 
by  all  the  light  cavalry  in  Africa)  as  they  took  space,  commenced  an  active 
fire,  the  platoon  being  commanded  by  Lieutenant  Thomas.  The  Arabs 
the  moment  we  drew  rein,  turned  about,  and  were  already  forming  in  large 
bodies  on  either  flank.  So  the  squadrons  commenced  their  return  at  a  slow- 
trot,  the  skirmishers  firing  and  doing  the  same.  On  our  return,  we  found 
order  re-established  among  the  infantry,  and  as  cartridges  had  been  dis- 


42  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

their  cartridges,  would  have  been  inevitably  cut  to  pieces 
by  a  large  force  of  the  Arabs,  who,  in  a  sudden  rush,  had 
already  ridden  down  their  skirmishers. 

We  encamped  this  night  at  the  "  Zouave's  Grave,"  so 
called  from  its  being  the  last  resting  place  of  a  fine  young 
sergeant  of  that  corps,  mortally  wounded  during  the  day. 
When  in  the  heat  of  action,  the  fated  ball  finds  its  mark, 
it  adds  but  to  the  excitement  of  the  scene,  for  the  whist 
ling  of  the  balls  tells  you  that  there  are  more,  and  self 
prompts  you  to  be  proud  and  thankful  to  your  own  pre 
serving  star ;  and  one's  feelings  are  aroused  with  the 
spirit  of  immediate  revenge.  All  are  then  occupied  ;  the 
surrounding  plain  is  re-echoing  with  the  Arab  war-cry  of, 
"Aerouka — Aerouka — Aerouka,"  intermingled  with  and 
interrupted  by  the  loud  call  of  "  Carcolet,"  "  Carcolet," 
as  often  as  a  comrade  sees  his  friend  fall  dead  or  wounded 
by  his  side.  The  dead  bodies  are  equally  with  the 
wounded  carried  off  the  field,  to  prevent  the  Arabs 
decapitating  them,  and  carrying  them  off  in  triumph.) 
The  report  of  the  musketry,  the  smoke  wreathing  up 
around  you,  the  uniforms  of  the  French,  the  wild  cos 
tume  of  the  Arabs  all  conjure  up  such  a  scene  of  excite 
ment  as  none  in  this  life  realize,  but  the  gambler  and 
engaged  soldier.  How  different  when  the  heat  of  combat 
is  over,  and  accident  throws  the  line  of  your  march  along 
side  of  the  hospital  train,  or  as  you  casually  ride  by  them, 
and  behold  the  long  line  of  sick  and  wounded ;  and  every 

tributed,  and  they  were  somewhat  strengthened,  they  looked  as  calm  as  if 
nothing  had  ever  been  the  matter — that  is,  they  resumed  their  matter-of-fact 
skirmishing  deportment.  And  now,  one  word  as  to  charging  in  order  or 
disorder.  I  gave  a  glance  back  just  as  the  troops  were  about  commencing 
the  full  gallop  of  the  charge.  We  were  charging  in  platoon,  as  time  did  not 
admit  other  formation  ;  the  order  seemed  better  than  a  bad  charge  on  a  drill 
ground,  and  not  as  even  as  a  good  one  ;  there  was  none  of  that  uneven  scat 
tering  and  loosening  out  on  the  flanks  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  all  seemed  to 
crowd  up  towards  the  centre,  and  the  rear  platoons  I  believe  crowded  into 
the  leading  one.  But,  for  rapidity  of  execution,  from  the  moment  of  the 
breathless  command  of  the  half  frightened  commander  of  the  rear-guard,  to 
the  moment  of  our  return,  nothing  could  have  been  more  brilliant  in  the  way 
of  rapid  cavalry  maneuvering. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  43 

now  and  then  witness  a  litter  halted  from  out  the  line, 
whilst  the  surgeon  is  administering,  with  a  look  of  soldierly 
solicitude,  to  the  wants  of  some  poor  man,  whose  wan 
and  ghastly  cheeks  mark  him  so  shortly  to  be  death's  own. 
You  then  reflect  that  this  very  day  he  was  in  the  pride  of 
his  strength  and  courage,  performing  a  soldier's  duty  with 
a  soldier's  gallantry.  You  see  how  altered  he  looks  now 
and  find  it  is  impossible  to  regard  it  with  altogether  a 
stoic's  eye.  The  frequency  of  the  scene,  and  one's  own 
continual  risk,  prevents  a  thing  of  this  kind  long  weighing 
on  one's  mind  ;  but  few  can  pass  such  a  sight  without  an 
involuntary  sigh.  And  often  have  I  in  curiosity  watched 
the  countenances  of  the  occupant  of  the  litter  on  the 
(mules)  other  side.  Seldom  is  it  one  of  firm  determina 
tion,  still  one  far  from  womanly  weakness,  but  a  some 
thing  of  anxiety,  I  know  not  what ;  a  something  I  fancy, 
unknown  to  the  reckless  being  who  enlists  for  money,  or 
the  one  who  enters  his  country's  ranks  from  youthful 
enthusiasm  and  ardor  of  patriotism,  but  one  peculiar 
alone  to  the  young  conscript  of  France,  who,  plucked 
from  home,  recurs  to  his  friends,  when,  as  demoralized  by 
the  effect  of  the  burning  climate  on  his  wound,  he  fears 
never  to  return.  These  reflections  may  appear  to  have 
been  out  of  place,  and  indeed  it  is  probable  in  a  war  of 
my  own  country  or  under  any  other  circumstances,  they 
would  never  have  occurred ;  but  here  I  was  a  traveller 
militant  on  the  soil  of  Africa.  Our  encampment  was  on 
some  hills  overlooking  a  narrow  valley,  with  heights  which 
commanded  it  in  the  neighborhood,  and  as  through  some 
unaccountable  neglect,  these  were  not  occupied  by  any 
sort  of  guard,  it  came  to  pass,  what  we  predicted.  It 
sure  enough  did  not  escape  the  vigilance  of  some  prowling 
Arabs,  and  as  our  regiment  was  encamped  on  the  side  hill 
nearest,  it  had  some  few  men  and  horses  wounded  as  the 
consequence.* 

June  I4th. — This  day  we  were  less  molested,  but  the 

*  It  was  here  that  the  hospital  train  was  obliged  to  give  place  to  the 
Marshal's  suite,  although  previously  installed. 


44  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

hills  at  times  presented  great  difficulties ;  and,  as  usual, 
we  were  always  obliged  to  await  the  preparing  of  a  route 
for  the  artillery.  I  was  here  more  particularly  than  on 
any  other  day  struck  with  the  want  of  management  of  the 
French  with  their  horses.  They  never  dismounted  from 
their  horses  whilst  ascending  the  steep  hills,  which  they 
might  easily  have  done,  as  there  were  strong  infantry  sup 
ports  to  the  skirmishers  on  the  flanks,  and  these  were 
scarcely  engaged.  So,  too,  we  would  move  on,  perhaps 
only  some  hundred  yards,  and  halt,  remaining  mounted 
perhaps  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  before  ordered  to  dis 
mount  ;  the  signal  for  the  advance  or  halt  being  sounded 
by  the  trumpets  attached  to  the  general  staff.  In  our 
cavalry  regiments  the  horses  would  have  been  saved  to 
the  utmost ;  but  the  French  are  deficient  in  this  purely 
national  innate  love  of  the  horse,  God's  noblest  work 
after  man.  This  night  we  encamped  at  the  "  bois  d'oliv- 
iers"  (wood  of  olives,)  a  beautiful  grove,  nearly  a  mile 
long,  and  half  as  wide,  at  the  foot  of  the  Col  de  Teneah. 
On  the  farther  edge  of  the  grove  coursed  a  noble  clear 
spring,  and  then  beyond  extended  a  strip  of  meadow  to 
where  the  ragged  sides  of  the  mountains  arose  precipi 
tately,  studded  with  rock  and  covered  with  underbrush. 
When  within  half  a  league  we  found  signs  of  what  we 
were  to  expect  on  the  morrow,  by  seeing  drawn  out  be 
low  us,  on  a  plateau  to  the  left,  at  the  foot  of  the  moun 
tain,  the  whole  body  of  Abd-el-Kader's  infantry.  And 
so  steady  had  been  their  appearance  when  seen  drawn  up 
in  line,  that  they  were  at  first  taken  by  the  officers  of  the 
advance  guard  of  cavalry  for  the  division  of  General  Ros- 
tolan,  as  we  presumed  that  he  had  been  ordered  to  seize 
on  the  pass,  and  await  us.  It  was  not  until  one  of  the 
marshal's  staff  came  up,  that  we  were  undeceived,  for  the 
aforesaid  division  was  not  expected.  Our  glasses  deceived 
us,  inasmuch  as  the  grey  surtout  (capote)  of  the  French 
soldier  might  look  thus  dark  to  us  from  the  peculiar  haze. 
At  least  so  we  thought ;  and  I  really  believe,  that  their 
regular  appearance  had  such  an  effect  on  us,  that  color  of 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  45 

dress  alone  would,  had  they  been  near,  have  been  sooner 
overlooked,  than  we  credit  that  an  Arab  force  could  make 
such  an  appearance.  The  fact  was,  that  they,  notwith 
standing  their  more  circuitous  route,  had  outmarched  us, 
and  showed  themselves  thus  in  bravado ;  and  fortunate 
for  us  that  they  did,  for  it  thus  put  it  in  the  Marshal's 
power  to  take  measures  accordingly. 

The  regiment  encamped  as  usual,  but  from  the  prox 
imity  of  the  foe,  in  a  country  where  he  could  act,  and 
where  he  had  shown  himself  thus  in  force,  guards  were 
doubled  and  on  the  alert  with  increased  vigilance.  At 
dusk,  private  orders  had  been  borne  to  all  the  officers  to 
be  in  readiness  with  the  rest  of  the  army  by  twelve  o'clock. 
At  midnight,  (June  I5th,)  accordingly  the  whole  camp  was 
noiselessly  got  under  arms.  Regiments  of  infantry  stole 
up  the  heights,  and  occupied  the  passes  and  commanding 
points.  At  two  o'clock  the  cavalry  was  on  the  saddle, 
and  commenced  ascending  the  height  by  the  narrow  and 
difficult  path ;  and  as  our  movement  had  by  this  time 
become  known  to  the  Arabs,  orders  from  the  rear  were 
forwarded  by  mouth  from  man  to  man,  for  the  head  of 
the  column  to  quicken  the  pace.  Ragged  as  was  the 
pathway,  sometimes  obliging  the  men  to  file  by  singly, 
we  were  hurried  from  a  walk  to  a  trot,  and  to  a  gallop  ; 
the  object  being  to  get  the  way  clear  for  the  convoy, 
which,  harnessed  up  and  parked  in  a  solid  mass,  still 
waited  in  the  "  bois  d'oliviers"  On  arriving  at  the  point 
designated,  the  "plateau  de  la  croix"  one  half  of  the 
cavalry  were  dismounted.  But  from  the  press  and  haste, 
there  seemed  to  have  been  more  confusion  than  as  a  mili 
tary  man  I  could  have  well  preconceived.  The  position 
assigned  us  was  one  of  the  several  "plateaux"  or  spurs 
of  table  land  projecting  out  from  the  steep  sides  of  the 
mountain,  much  covered  with  rock.  Instead  of  form 
ing  up  by  half  squadron,  as  we  could  have  done,  and,  then 
dismounting  the  designated  men  and  causing  the  others 
with  the  led  horses  to  file  off  again,  and  so  with  each 
squadron  successively,  the  platoons  as  we  came  up  at  a 


46  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

gallop,  were  each  one  halted  at  the  point  aforesaid,  and  as 
they  stood  in  columns  of  "  twos  "  the  number  "  twos  "  (hav 
ing  before  starting  been  advertised  of  it)  threw  themselves 
from  their  horses,  which  were  as  instantly  led  off  at  a  full 
pace.  The  men  who  dismounted,  then  formed  line  and 
were  disposed  in  this  their  place  in  the  general  line  of  bat 
tle.  The  "plateau  de  la  croix"  *  where  we  found  ourselves 
placed,  was  the  extreme  right  of  this  day's  fight.  During 
the  preceding  month,  on  the  return  of  the  army  from 
Mediah  on  its  way  back  to  Algiers,  the  cavalry,  as  the 
army  was  crossing  at  mid-day,  narrowly  escaped  being  cut 
off  at  this  point,  from  its  having  been  neglected.  This 
time  the  Marshal's  experience  dictated  our  being  placed 
here,  to  prevent  the  Arabs  seizing  so  important  a  key, 
even  should  they  make  the  attempt.  It  was  a  place 
naturally  strong ;  so  that  the  dismounted  cavalry  were 
fully  competent  to  its  defence.  By  this  time  the  skirmish 
in  the  woods,  which  had  commenced  by  a  light  firing,  had 
now  thickened  into  a  serious  affair ;  it  gradually  extended 
on  the  right  and  left  of  it,  and  by  5  o'clock,  A.  M.,  the 
line  of  fight  extended  in  a  semi-circle  for  near  half  a 
league,  and  the  while  the  dismounted  cavalry  on  the 
plateau  were  felt  (but  not  warmly)  by  the  Kabyles  with 
the  Arab  infantry.  Indeed,  the  fight  itself,  though  fought 
by  the  Bedouins  dismounted,  by  the  Arab  infantry,  and 
the  mountaineers  or  Kabyles,  owed  its  pertinacity  to  the 
unflinching  courage  and  native  skill  of  these  latter.  On 
all  points  where  practicable,  and  it  could  be  brought  to 
bear,  pieces  of  our  artillery  had  been  put  in  position,  and 
with  their  deep  roar  added  to  the  general  resonation  of 
the  infantry  fire.  This,  aided  by  the  echoes  of  the  moun 
tains,  sounded  as  one  mighty  host,  executing  unceasing 
"  fire  by  battalions." 

*  So  named  from  a  cross  cut  on  the  rocks  above  a  bubbling  spring  on  the 
right  of  the  road.  Tradition  gives  no  account  of  its  origin,  though  it  testi 
fies  to  its  having  been  there  time  immemorially.  The  "  Tombeau  de  la 
Chretienne  "  on  the  heights  between  the  sea  and  plain  of  the  Metidja,  is 
another  vestige  of  the  Christian  in  this  land  of  the  Moslem. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MI  LI  AN  AH.  47 

The  point  where  the  Arabs  had  encamped  was  the  great 
plateau,  lying  immediately  below,  and  extending  for  some 
distance  to  our  right,  the  ground  where  we  had  first  seen 
their  infantry  the  preceding  evening.  It  was  from  here  that 
by  a  flank  movement  they  had  moved  around  in  great  force 
and  attacked  the  "  bois  d'oliviers"  on  all  points,  which  up 
to  this  time  was  the  seat  of  the  severest  fighting.  The 
contest  was  in  defence  of  the  helpless  convoy  parked 
there ;  though  at  each  moment,  as  the  battle  lulled,  they 
were  pushed  up  the  road.  The  main  mass  of  it,  as  yet, 
remained  there.  It  was,  though  not  in  our  view,  suffi 
ciently  evident  to  us,  from  seeing  the  artillery  in  battery 
on  several  points  somewhat  lower  down,  throwing  their 
shells  heavily  and  constantly  into  the  ravines  skirting  the 
sides  at  the  bottom  of  our  part  of  the  mountain,  that  a 
large  body  of  the  enemy  must  be  there  in  waiting ;  but 
it  was  not  until  after  six,  and  near  seven  o'clock,  that  we 
were  fully  aware  of  the  real  numbers  that  were  there.  At 
this  moment,  a  large  column  of  about  one  thousand  of 
Abd-el-Kader's  regulars,  at  quick  step,  and  aligned  in  the 
most  perfect  order,  left  their  place  of  cover,  and  advanced 
desperately  up  the  sides  of  the  "plateau  de  la  mine  de 
cuivre"  On  this,  a  bare  piece  of  ground,  they  unmasked ; 
and,  in  face  of  a  raging  fire  of  artillery,  and  battalions  of 
infantry,  (that,  from  the  nature  of  the  ground,  took  them 
in  front  and  flank,)  they  dauntlessly  drove  from  their  posi 
tion  the  "  Tirailleurs  de  Vincennes,"  who  occupied  a  nar 
row  ledge  crowning  the  plateau,  and  threw  them  back  on 
their  reserves.  This  was  in  full  view  of  us,  it  being  only  some 
three  hundred  and  fifty  yards  or  so  to  the  right,  and  lower 
down.  By  the  aid  of  our  glasses,  it  was  easy  to  distin 
guish  individual  combats,  as  the  "  Tirailleurs,"  having 
been  rallied  and  reinforced,  charged  in  turn  to  regain  their 
lost  ground.  They  were  a  second  time  forced  back ;  until, 
by  a  last  desperate  *  charge,  precipitating  themselves  on 

*  In  this  last  charge,  a  private  of  tirailleurs  distinguished  himself  by  kill 
ing  three  Arabs  continuously  ;  he  bayoneted  one,  shot  the  other,  and  as  in 
the  act  of  killing  the  third,  with  his  bayonet  just  entering  his  side,  received 


48  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

the  Arabs,  they  finally  possessed  themselves  of  the  point 
in  contest,  the  veritable  key  of  the  whole  battle-ground. 
The  loss  of  the  Arabs  was  tremendous,  and  they  retired 
in  confusion,  throwing  themselves  into  the  underwood  of 
the  adjoining  ravines.  This  had  been  the  crisis  of  the 
fight.  Similar  attacks,  but  less  daring  and  obstinate, 
having  met  with  repulse  by  the  other  regiments  on  the 
centre  and  left,  the  enemy  commenced  drawing  off,  and 
at  about  mid-day  not  a  gun  was  heard,  and  the  subsequent 
stillness  and  silence  of  the  place  was  most  striking.  All 
the  regiments  obtained  the  Marshal's  applause  on  that  day ; 
but  the  Tirailleurs  Zouaves,  "  Troisieme  Leger,"  and  3d 
light  infantry,  suffered  the  most  heavily.  The  killed  and 
wounded,  in  this  day's  affair,  amounted  to  some  three 
hundred.  General  Schramm,  chief  of  the  staff,  and  sec 
ond  in  command,  was  struck  by  a  spent  ball,  in  the  same 
spot  and  manner  that  happened  to  him  at  Wagram,  but 
not  seriously.  The  wounded  having  been  taken  up  the 
pass,  and  then  the  convoy  having  been  likewise  sent 
through,  the  troops  which  had  been  engaged  commenced 
evacuating  their  position,  and  took  up  their  line  of  march 
successively.  The  whole  army  was  concentrated  on  the 
summit*  of  the  mountain,  late  in  the  afternoon.  In  relation 

from  the  Arab  a  pistol  shot  (the  muzzle  touching  his  face,)  which  blew  off 
a  part  of  his  jaw,  and  left  him  senseless  on  the  field,  but  not  dead. 

*  The  table  land  on  the  peak  of  the  Teneah,  could  not  have  been  more 
than  a  couple  of  acres.  It  was  soon  literally  choked  up  with  wounded.  Our 
chasseurs  stood  dismounted  in  column  beside  their  horses.  Some  three  or 
four  hospital-marquees  were  the  only  tents  pitched.  Regiments  of  infantry 
were  resting  on  the  declivities  adjoining.  In  one  place  stood  the  grey 
headed  marshal  issuing  his  directions  in  person.  In  another,  and  nearer 
to  us,  the  bodies  of  the  slain  officers  were  laid  out  in  a  row.  Continued 
screams  arose  from  the  hospital-tents,  where  they  were  performing  the  am 
putations.  Ghastly  countenances  of  the  badly  wounded,  propped  up  on  the 
bare  ground,  exposed  to  the  searching  wind  of  the  summit,  already  thick 
ened  into  immediate  contact  with  ourselves,  and  horses.  The  scene  was 
an  unusual  one,  even  amidst  war.  However,  at  such  times  it  often  happens, 
that  associations  endows  some  incidents  with  a  preponderating  influence. 
For  me,  it  was  connected  with  the  "  Tirailleurs  de  Vincennes."  Since 
arriving  in  France,  I  had  seen  them  in  far  varied  situations.  Firstly,  at 
the  camp  of  Fontainbleau,  as  one  of  the  three  American  officers  invited  to 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  49 

to  this  affair  of  the  Col  de  Teneah,  the  Marshal  was  by  some 
very  much  blamed  for  not  having  followed  up  the  repulse 
of  the  enemy  after  their  attack  on  the  plateau  "  de  la  mine 
de  cuivre"  by  a  charge  on  them  with  the  troops  of  the 
right  wing.  The  enemy  were  then  in  a  highly  critical 
situation,  and  would  have  suffered  a  terrible  loss.  This 
was  particularly  evident  to  us  from  our  particular  position, 
for  we  had  observed  for  the  last  two  hours  or  so,  the 
wounded  of  the  enemy  being  carried  to  their  depot  for 
the  wounded,  off  to  the  right  (in  respect  to  us)  extremity 
of  the  plateau,  (where  they  had  encamped)  in  such  great 
numbers,  in  men's  arms,  in  litters,  on  camels,  and  on 
horses,  that  as  they  came  off  of  the  field  of  battle  in 
two  directions,  it  showed  like  two  very  heavy  columns ; 
and  were  subject  occasionally  to  much  confusion  from  the 
fall  of  some  lucky  long-ranging  shell.  The  loss  of  the 
Arabs  must  have  been  tremendous,  from  the  report  of  all 
the  officers  engaged,  and  from  this  proof  before  our  eyes 
of  their  numerous  wounded.  And  yet,  in  the  policy  of 
their  chief,  they  exhibited  after  all  firing  had  ceased,  the 
bravado  of  their  regiments  of  regular  Spahis,  resplendent 
in  their  "  red  bournous,"  parading  in  line  just  outside  of 
the  "wood  of  olives,"  and  going  through  with  all  the 
evolutions  of  a  drill  as  if  in  defiance  of  us,  and  to  mark 
their  unconquered  spirit.  Still,  the  subsequent  events  of 
the  campaign  showed  that  this  affair  had  thrown  a  dis 
relish  into  the  Arabs  to  come  to  close  quarters  again,  or 
shirmish  with  their  usual  alacrity.  The  killed  and  wounded 

Louis  Philippe's  suite,  we  had  regarded  with  admiration  this  chosen  and 
newly-raised  corps.  All  eyes  were  then  upon  them.  They  were  sent  to 
Africa  shortly  after.  I  arrived  in  spring.  It  was  at  Bouffarick,  where  the 
army  corps  was  being  concentrated,  that  their  bugles  and  dark  green  dress, 
once  more  interested  me.  We  were  acquaintances.  This  evening  closed 
the  drama.  During  the  day  they  were  particularly  exposed.  And  now, 
at  this  moment,  a  detail,  in  those  dark  uniforms,  came  silently  to  that  heap 
of  slain.  They  sought  there  their  leader  ;  the  third  that  had  fallen  since 
we  met  at  Fontainbleau.  I  well  remember  the  stalwart  corse,  as  the  bugles 
sounded  a  few  notes,  it  was  borne  off  in  solemn  silence  to  its  mountain 
grave.  The  army  said  that  in  him,  they  had  lost  a  "  beau  Sabreur." 


50  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

in  this  affair  amounted  to  three  hundred  ;  twenty  only 
were  reported  killed.  This  would  seem  incredible,  but  it 
is  a  generally  known  fact,  that  where  cannon  are  not  em 
ployed,  few  hits  kill  dead.  Besides,  those  mortally  wounded 
were  reported  merely  as  wounded,  to  satisfy  the  marshal's 
conscience  ;*  which  loss  was  surpassed  only  by  the  bat 
tle  of  the  1 2th  of  May;  but,  as  the  French  officers  say, 
there  were  full  fifty  killed  and  missing.  Such  of  the 
wounded  as  could  be  transported,  the  cavalry  and  some 
few  regiments  of  infantry  as  an  escort,  were,  late  in  the 
afternoon,  sent  down  to  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  to  the 
"  Ferme  de  Moussaiah."  It  was  about  half  past  seven 
that  we  took  up  our  line  of  march  from  the  summit,  (the 
afternoon  and  night  were  felt  chilly  as  we  were  on  the 
elevated  summit)  and  it  was  about  two  o'clock  A.  M.,  when 
we  reached  our  encamping  ground.  As  an  instance  of 
the  trying  fatigues  of  war,  our  horses  had  remained  sad 
dled  and  bridled,  without  food  and  without  water,  all  this 
time,  being  twenty-six  hours.  Nor  was  this  the  only 
occasion,  ere  this  campaign  was  finished  ;  it  occurred  sev 
eral  times.  It  happened  twice  within  this  very  week. 

June  i6th. — This  day  we  remained  at  Moussaiah.  The 
army  was  occupied  in  transporting  below  more  convoys 
of  the  wounded,  and  occupying  the  most  important  points 
of  the  mountains,  as  well  as  in  mending  and  where  pos 
sible,  widening  the  route. 

June  i /th. — General  Blancford  with  the  cavalry  brigade, 
and  some  two  thousand  infantry,  was  sent  to  Blidah  with 
a  large  convoy  of  such  wounded  as  could  be  moved,  for 
the  entire  interior  of  the  fortified  camp  of  Moussaiah  was 
taken  up  with  tents  and  brush  cabins  of  the  wounded  ; 

*  The  Marshal  reported  only  twenty  killed  to  three  hundred  wounded. 
This  statement  was  true  of  such  as  were  shot  down  dead.  But  a  man 
though  mortally  wounded,  even  though  he  survived  not  to  reach  the  hos 
pital,  was  returned  merely  wounded.  This  impolitic  policy  of  the  Marshal, 
who  wished  to  be  thought  as  gaining  bloodless  victories,  so  unjust  to  the 
troops,  who  suffered,  created  universal  disgust  ;  and  when  I  reached  Tou 
lon,  there  was  an  express  (an  officer)  sent  to  inquire  into  this  and  other 
accounts.  There  were  twelve  officers  alone  killed. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  51 

for  huts  constructed  of  brush,  from  the  insufficiency  of 
tents,  had  to  be  the  best  and  only  covering  for  scores  of 
dying  and  maimed  heroes  of  the  preceding  day,  in  a  cli 
mate,  too,  where  a  wound  is  almost  certain  death.  The 
other  all-important  object  of  General  Blancford's  column 
was  to  bring  up  to  the  main  army  the  supplies  that  might 
have  been  collected  at  this  place  (Blidah)  for  it  was  now 
fully  known  that  the  Marshal's  plan  was  to  re-provision 
Mediah,  which  had  received  but  a  two  month's  supply. 
The  tribe  of  the  Hadjotes,  whose  acquaintance  I  had 
formed  whilst  with  the  detached  brigade  of  General  Ros- 
tolan  the  past  month,  followed  us,  skirmishing*  slightly 
till  we  had  passed  Chiffa,  beyond  which  they  seldom  or 
never  venture. 

June  1 8th. — The  next  day,  towards  the  afternoon,  we 

*  Though  half  fearing  to  seem  an  egotist,  I  must  here  mention  a  little 
anecdote.  Just  this  side  the  Chiffa,  the  army  was  halted  whilst  the  centre 
bat-train  and  wagons  were  crossing  and  ascending  the  narrow  pathway  up  the 
opposite  side.  There  being  some  inviting  grain-fields  just  a  little  to  the  left, 
the  colonel  of  the  French  regiment  (chasseurs  and  hussars)  ventured  thought 
lessly  beyond  the  infantry  line  of  skirmishers  and  the  regiment  commenced 
collecting  forage.  I  left  my  regiment  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  Danish  officer 
attached  to  their  regiment.  They  had  omitted  to  post  videttes  :  presently 
from  the  bushes  that  were  within  one  hundred  yards,  some  leading  Arabs 
commenced  deliberately  firing  on  us ;  and  as  the  Dane  and  myself  were 
behind  the  regiment,  three  balls  in  succession  whistled  past  us,  making 
my  horse  dodge  his  ears  and  snort.  In  an  instant,  to  saddle  was  ordered, 
forage  was  abandoned,  and  the  regiment  rode  off  pell  mell,  getting  through 
by  different  debouches  the  brush  skirting  the  river  bank.  One  officer,  a 
lieutenant  of  hussars,  and  some  twelve  men,  had  been  hurriedly  ordered 
"en  tirailleur"  to  cover  the  movement,  but  strange  to  say,  after  making 
show  of  galloping  out,  and  hollowing  to  his  men  who  seemed  as  little  to 
relish  it  as  himself,  to  take  ground,  he  also  disappeared  through  the  bushes. 
My  friend  and  myself  were  doing  the  same,  when  the  balls  thickening,  the 
hussars  came  galloping  along ;  but  I  was  struck  to  see  how,  even  amidst 
their  fear  (for  their  hurried  manner  betrayed  that,)  they  could  not  overcome 
their  discipline  as  to  respect  for  rank,  for  they  seemed  to  recover  them 
selves,  and  looked  as  if  necessary  to  be  resigned.  My  feelings  at  that 
moment  made  me  feel  that  Africa  should  be  no  exception  to  my  determina 
tion  as  a  cavalry  officer,  to  ever  cover  the  retreat  of  my  comrades.  So  I 
ordered  them  to  precede,  and  myself  was  last  in  sight  of  my  friends,  the 
Had j outs.  This  tribe  is  sworn  to  defend  its  own  territory,  but  never 
advances  beyond,  nor  has  ever  fully  joined  in  allegiance  to  Abd-el-Kader. 


52  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840  : 

returned  to  Moussaiah,  leaving  the  French  regiment  of 
horse  behind  to  recruit  at  Blidah  and  Bouffarick.  At 
midnight  we  were  noiselessly  got  to  horse,  as  the  whole 
camp  were  under  arms ;  at  such  times  not  a  signal  of 
course  is  heard,  but  staff  officers  in  an  under  tone  pass 
rapidly  from  officer  to  officer  along  the  ranks,  issuing  the 
directions  as  required.  The  fault  of  the  Marshal  was  his 
ill  combination  of  the  essential  time  for  each  part  of  the 
army  to  move  ;  and  thus  as  we  were  to  be  concentrated 
a  mile  or  so  from  camp,  our  regiment  awaited  full  more 
than  an  hour  the  coming  up  of  the  entire  corps.  It  was 
with  some  impatience  that  we  awaited  ;  at  length  the 
muffled,  but  timed  tread  of  the  infantry,  as  battalion 
after  battalion,  in  the  dead  darkness  of  the  night,  came 
up,  was  heard  approaching  us,  and  then,  as  they  formed 
up  in  close  column  at  our  side,  the  darker  form  of  their 
schakos  was  just  discernible  against  the  horizon ;  and 
occasionally,  commingling  with  their  measured  tramp, 
was  heard  the  rumbling  of  some  piece  of  artillery 
or  wagon  of  the  baggage  train,  as  it  stole  cautiously 
along ;  still,  so  quiet  was  the  whole  movement,  that  an 
army  watching  our  actions,  could  not  have  become  aware 
that  our  camp  had  been  deserted.  With  us  this  precaution 
was  most  necessary,  to  avoid  awaking  the  Arab  guerillas 
of  the  mountain.  We  were  also  safer,  in  darkness,  from 
their  deadly  aim.  We  soon  commenced  the  ascent.  The 
gray  light  of  coming  day  gradually  gained  on  the  retreat 
ing  darkness  of  the  night.  The  sun  came  forth  in  all  his 
glory,  and  each  peak  seemed  gilded  with  a  blaze  of  glory, 
as,  with  the  rising  of  the  sun,  we  attained  the  summit  of 
the  Col  de  Teneah.  This  we  found  in  a  more  organized 
condition  than  the  scene  of  the  numerous  wounded,  hud 
dled  together  as  they  could  find  room,  presented  at  the 
time  that  we  quitted  it. 

June  igth. — The  fore  part  of  the  day  was  spent  on  the 
height,  awaiting  the  concentrating  of  the  convoy,  and 
re-organizing  the  troops  after  their  severe  losses  by  sick 
ness  and  battle.  For  a  march  to  Medeah  was  known  to 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  53 

be  our  immediate  object,  and  a  rumor  was  spreading  in 
the  camp,  that  a  march  was  proposed  to  Milianah.  The 
army,  however,  was  moving  down  the  defile  from  morning 
to  about  mid-day.  By  the  afternoon,  our  turn  came  to 
take  our  place  in  the  line  of  march.  The  giving  way  of 
a  part  of  the  narrow  route,  and  the  rolling  of  a  piece  of 
artillery,  with  its  horses,  into  the  deep  ravine  below, 
created  some  confusion  and  delay.  The  night  set  in  dark 
and  heavy,  but  towards  eleven  o'clock  the  clouds  broke 
away,  and  nothing  could  be  lovelier  than  the  "  wood  of 
olives/'  "as  seen  lying  immediately  before  us — its  dark 
masses  of  shade  in  strong  contrast  with  the  bright 
moonlight  that  pierced  it,  where  the  trees  were  more 
open.  As  we  neared  it,  and  entered  by  them,  all  pleas 
urable  sensation  was  repelled  by  the  stench  of  the  putri- 
fying  corses  of  the  late  fight ;  still,  so  much  is  there  in  a 
good  appetite,  after  a  day  of  fatigue,  that  we  found  the 
corps  that  had  preceeded  us,  heartily  engaged  at  supper, 
where  the  smell  was  most  intolerable,  absolutely  reeking 
in  our  nostrils ;  an  example,  however,  we  hastened  to  fol 
low,  on  arriving  at  our  designated  place  of  bivouac,  at 
half  past  eleven.  This  made  the  second  time  that  our 
horses  had  remained  the  full  twenty-four  hours  saddled, 
bridled,  unwatered,  unfed. 

June  2Oth. — By  an  easy  march,  this  day  we  arrived  at 
Medeah.  The  Arabs  showed  themselves  in  some  force  to 
our  right,  but  at  a  great  distance,  sending  some  very  few 
horsemen  to  skirmish  with  us.  They  were  evidently  dis 
heartened.  Some  few  miles  from  the  pass  of  Teneah,  and 
in  the  nearest  direction  to  Medeah,  rises  abruptly  a  de 
tached  spur  of  the  mountains.  On  this  had  been  estab 
lished  an  Arab  redoubt,  supplied  with  a  piece  of  artillery. 
It  would  have  been  an  affair  of  many  lives  to  have 
attacked  and  forced  it ;  but  its  height  rendered  its  fire  so 
ineffectual  that  the  columns  were  passing  for  a  full  hour 
within  its  range,  its  balls  falling  everywhere  in  amongst 
us,  but  not  a  soldier  killed.  We  were,  that  is,  our 
particular  regiment,  far  more  annoyed  by  the  audacity  of 


54  THE   CAMPAIGN'  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

some  Kabyles  on  our  left,  who,  covered  by  some  broken 
ground,  approached  quite  near  to  us,  whilst  halted,  and  un 
protected  by  the  infantry  '*  tirailleurs  "  who  had  continued 
their  march  unobservant  of  us,  and  thus  left  us  exposed. 
A  few  balls  whistled  among  the  platoons,  and  Captain 
Assenais'  horse  was  hit.  I  thanked  my  stars  that  it  was 
neither  himself  nor  me,  for  I  was  at  his  side.* 

Medeah,  without  being  as  picturesquely  situated  as 
Milianah,  has  beautiful  environs.  Its  site  is  on  a  mod 
erate  rise,  which  slopes  off  gently  in  every  direction, 
excepting  towards  the  east.  Numerous  Moorish  country- 
seats  are  studded  around,  universally  accompanied  by  that 
chief  charm  of  Moorish  civilization,  a  sweet  garden  spot. 
How  far  the  Easterns  excel  us  in  that  respect.  With 
them,  none  so  poor,  none  so  rich,  but  what  his  first  care 
is  to  turn  the  immediate  spot  around  him  into  a  paradise 
of  a  garden.  There  is  here  one  of  the  finest  of  Moorish 
aqueducts,  of  some  miles  length,  nearly  grand  as  the 
Roman  must  have  been,  but  more  pleasing  to  the  eye 
from  its  lighter  and  more  picturesque  Saracen  arch. 
Medeah,  though  unprovided  with  the  same  vast  necrop 
olis,  proving  its  former  crowded  generations,  is  now 
about  the  size  of  Milianah.  It  was  rich,  but  by  no  means 
of  the  vast  importance  of  the  latter  city,  whose  king  [Bey] 
is  conspicuously  marked  as  the  reckless  and  avaricious 
servant  and  abettor  of  the  Marabout  chief,  Abd-el-Kader. 
And  it  was  in  Milianah,  more  particularly,  that  they  had 
celebrated  their  orgies,  where  heads  of  massacred  French 
caused  a  fete  of  the  direst  kind.  Both,  however,  were 
rich,  both  had  been  Roman  sites,  and  the  savans  of 
the  French  army,  who  had  examined,  said  that  they 

*  As  for  our  soldiers  dodging,  I  remember  this,  as  one  of  two  instances, 
where  men  who  were  habitually  indifferent  under  an  actual  fire,  displayed 
this  physical  nervousness  when  unexpectant  of  a  shot.  The  other  was  with 
a  company  of  voltigeurs.  They  had  been  hard  fighting  five  minutes  before, 
with  some  loss,  and  had  just  gained  a  little  respite  under  a  hill  side  where  I 
was  standing  with  the  chasseurs,  when,  by  their  skirmishers  coming  in  un 
expectedly,  the  Arabs  crowned  the  height  and  fired,  whilst  our  attention 
was  drawn  to  watching  the  effect  of  some  charges  on  another  party. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  55 

depicted  the  usual  monumental  inscriptions  of  the 
Romans.  This  place  had  once  before  been  taken  and 
held  by  the  French  under  Marshal  Clausel,  but  had  been 
given  up  as  too  salient,  and  cut  off  from  their  proposed 
line  of  colonization  frontier.  The  place  was  found  garri 
soned  by  some  two  hundred  men,  and  already  showing  a 
scientific  design  engrafted  on  its  Arab  curtain  of  fortifica 
tions. 

June  2 1 st. — This  was  Sunday,  and  it  seemed  indeed  a 
day  of  heavenly  rest,  as  bivouacked  amidst  the  gardens  of 
the  town,  under  the  shade  of  the  myrtle,  and  on  the  banks 
of  a  rippling  stream  we  gave  way  to  our  longings  after 
luxury  and  repose,  and  forgot  that  war  was  near  and 
around  us. 

June  22d. — It  was  now  determined  by  the  marshal  to 
victual  Milianah  with  a  sufficiently  heavy  convoy  to  fur 
nish  supplies  for  the  use  of  an  army  in  the  fall,  operating 
in  the  plain  of  the  Cheliff.  Accordingly  the  distinguished 
Colonel  Changarnier,*  some  four  or  five  old  generals  hav 
ing  been  passed  over  for  that  purpose  (as  General  Schramm, 
General  D***,  (of  the  staff,)  General  Blancford,)  was  en 
trusted  with  a  select  corps  of  five  thousand  men.  All  the 
artillery,  excepting  some  few  pieces  of  mountain  howitz 
ers,  were  left  behind,  and  as  few  hindrances  to  mobility, 
independent  of  the  heavy  convoy  of  provisions  itself,  as 
were  possible.  The  squadrons  of  hussars  and  chasseurs, 
who  had  composed  the  second  regiment  of  march,  had  re 
mained  the  other  side  of  the  mountains ;  so  that  ours  the 
first  chasseurs  d'Afrique,  to  be  beforehand  with  our  friends 
the  Arabs,  we  marched  at  3  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and 
for  Africa  and  with  a  convoy,  at  a  slapping  pace.  We 
halted  about  1 1  o'clock,  for  an  hour,  to  prepare  breakfast, 
and  for  the  men  and  cattle  to  breathe ;  and  by  a  rapid 

*  Colonel  Changarnier  proved  his  complete  generalship  by  his  thoughtful- 
ness  of  all  corps.  We  never  were  halted,  even  for  ten  minutes,  but  that 
beforehand  an  orderly  dragoon  would  be  despatched  to  inform  our  com 
mander  what  he  might  do,  whether  dismount,  or  when  to  commence  opera 
tions,  or  forage  and  fueling  for  the  night's  bivouac. 


56  THE   CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

push  we  reached  the  plain  of  the  Cheliff,  crossing  that 
river  where  we  had  first  come  to  it,  on  our  march  from 
Milianah  at  half  past  7  o'clock.  We  had  scarcely  been 
fired  on  by  a  single  Arab  all  this  day,  but  towards  evening 
we  discovered  the  Arabs  at  some  leagues  distance  to  our 
right,  and  in  truly  formidable  numbers,  seeming  far  more 
numerous  than  we  had  ever  encountered  them,  when  our 
army  was  embodied  and  together.  Their  cavalry  extended 
over  the  plains,  and  the  woods  swarming  with  their  infan 
try  ;  their  regular  battalions  being  distinguishable  as  usual 
by  their  compactness  and  dark  uniforms,  (all  other  Arabs 
wearing  the  flowing  white  bournous.) 

June  23d. — As  our  object  was  to  avoid  an  engagement, 
we  were  got  together  at  2  o'clock,  and  on  full  march  for 
Milianah.  We  arrived  at  the  marabout,  (or  Moslem  d'Or- 
mitage,  a  Chapel)  at  about  mid-day.  There  had  been  the 
usual  light  skirmishing  all  the  way.  The  heights  on  either 
side  were  occupied.  The  garrison  came  out  to  meet  us. 
But,  when  most  at  our  ease,  one  of  those  dashes  for  which 
the  Arabs  are  noted,  had  nearly  resulted  to  our  cost.  The 
convoy  had  passed,  and  the  cavalry  were  already  entered 
in  the  defile,  when  the  whole  mass  of  Arabs  made  a  gen 
eral  attack,  charging  the  rear  guard  and  advancing  by  a 
pass  (that  had  been  overlooked)  to  the  right,  to  cut  it  (the 
rear-guard)  off  from  the  main  body,  whilst  thus  entangled 
in  the  mountains.  This  bold  manoeuvre  was  near  suc 
ceeding,  and  would  have  done  so  most  probably,  but  that 
the  direct  attack  on  the  rear-guard  at  the  mouth  of  the 
gorge,  was  commenced  too  soon,  and  the  regiments 
hurrying  back  to  the  support  of  the  rear-guard,  by  good 
fortune  and  the  merest  chance,  found  themselves  in  posi 
tion,  just  as  the  Arabs  were  advancing  up  this  neglected 
pass  (that  intersected  at  midway  the  main  one.)  As  it 
was,  they,  the  Arabs,  were  driven  back  on  all  points. 
This  was,  perhaps,  the  most  brilliant  affair,  for  the  hand 
ful  of  men  engaged,  that  occurred  during  the  campaign. 
On  this  occasion,  as  had  happened  several  times  before, 
the  men  were  addressed  in  French  by  the  deserters  in  the 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  $? 

ranks  of  the  enemy,  in  terms  too  opprobrious  for  decency 
to  repeat.  The  army,  excepting  a  small  escort  to  the  pro 
vision  convoy,  did  not  ascend  to  the  city  of  Milianah,  but 
remained  encamped  in  the  beautiful  plateau  at  its  base, 
until  evening,  when  it  returned,  and  encamped  in  a  square 
on  the  plain  near  the  marabout,  so  often  mentioned. 

June  24th. — By  an  easy  march,  the  next  day,  we  re 
turned  on  our  steps,  and  encamped  on  the  Cheliff,  at  the 
usual  place  of  crossing,  on  the  farther  side,  interposing  the 
stream  between  us,  and  the  Bedouins.  The  skirmishing 
continued,  as  usual,  and  the  "  obusiers  de  montagne  "  did 
their  full  share  of  mischief.  The  enemy  had  about  10,000 
horsemen  in  the  plain,  of  which  only  some  1,000  engaged. 
A  heavy  column  of  the  enemy's  infantry  were  observed 
progressing  through  the  mountains  and  wood,  making  a 
parallel  move  with  us,  they  very  properly  feared  to  trust 
to  their  discipline  to  withstand  a  charge  of  our  self-same 
chasseurs,  who  had  treated  them  so  unceremoniously  once 
before  near  Blidah.  This  body  of  infantry  had  a  force 
with  them,  which  they  occasionally  directed  at  us.  It  is 
impossible  in  this  country,  unless  present,  to  understand 
the  immense  moral  effect  that  the  French  cavalry  has, 
though  so  seldom  actually  engaged,  and  how  truly  help 
less  the  infantry  would  be  without  its  aid.  Still  the  merit 
of  the  war  lies  decidedly  with  the  foot. 

June  25th. — The  next  day  we  continued  the  same 
route  (the  one  we  had  passed  in  coming,)  with  occasional 
sharp  encounters,  and  encamped  at  the  Fountains.  Once 
or  twice  during  the  day,  the  Arabs  charged  and  entered 
the  line  of  skirmishers,  cutting  them  down  with  their  yat- 
agans,  and  receiving  bayonet  wounds  in  exchange.  This 
always  occurs,  when,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  ground, 
the  rear-guard  is  obliged  to  remain  in  position,  too  long — 
as  sometimes  necessitated  to  prevent  a  plunging  fire  from 
the  heights  on  the  convoy,  and  masses  of  the  columns  ;  or, 
in  the  heat  of  combatting,  when  individual  soldiers  expose 
themselves  by  not  preserving  their  intervals,  or  advancing 
beyond  the  line ;  or,  when  it  so  happens,  from  a  gap  in 


58  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  JUNE,  1840: 

the  line  being  made  by  many  of  the  killed  and  wounded 
falling  together.  In  such  cases,  you  will  see  the  whole 
body  of  Arabs,  from  all  quarters,  in  the  most  excited  man 
ner,  precipitate  themselves  on  that  one  point,  pouring  in 
their  fire,  and  brandishing  their  yatagans,  unless  as  imme 
diately  met  and  repulsed  by  the  infantry  or  cavalry  re 
serves. 

In  this  march,  as  usual,  the  column  destroyed  villages 
and  crops,  wherever  they  passed. 

June  26th. — We  were  on  march  again  at  2  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  but  were  not  annoyed  nor  followed  by  the 
Arabs.  Towards  9  o'clock,  our  regiment  of  chasseurs 
were  sent  to  Medeah  to  communicate  with  the  marshal. 
At  noon,  the  division  that  had  remained  at  Medeah,  the 
artillery,  wagons,  and  animals  of  the  train  were  put  in 
motion  to  form  their  junction  with  the  corps  under 
Colonel  Changarnier.  This  being  effected  about  midway 
to  the  mountains,  we  marched  to  and  encamped  amidst 
our  old  bowers  in  the  Bois  d'Oliviers  at  6  o'clock.  There 
was  some  firing  towards  the  close  of  the  march,  and  the 
Arabs  were  discovered  to  the  left,  but  not  in  very  large 
numbers.  They  certainly  had  had  enough  of  fighting  in 
this  region  before.  An  hour  after  camping,  we  were 
quietly  warned  "  to  horse,"  and  artillery,  convoy,  and 
cavalry,  commenced  ascending  the  pass  in  the  obscurity 
of  the  twilight,  some  few  guns  were  heard,  (seemingly 
chance  discharges  in  the  enemy's  camp ;)  and  this  proved 
the  last  molestation  the  French  army  was  destined  to  suf 
fer  in  the  spring  campaign  of  1840.  Our  regiment  got 
into  position  on  the  summit  of  the  mountain  in  some  few 
hours.  We  had  had  our  supper  before  starting ;  our  tents 
it  is  true  were  elsewhere,  but  the  officers,  like  the  men, 
were  happy  to  seize  a  tranquil  slumber  on  the  ground 
beside  their  picketed  horses.  During  the  night  the  army 
continued  concentrating  on  the  summit  of  the  heights  of 
Teneah. 

June  27th. — At  mid-day  we   commenced   defiling  on 
Moussaiah,  where  we  arrived  towards  sun-down. 


EXPEDITION  AGAINST  MILIANAH.  59 

June  28th. — The  day  following,  the  28th,  General  Blanc- 
ford  was  sent  with  the  cavalry  to  Blidah,  with  the  inten 
tion  of  bringing  up  the  provisions  that  had  been  left 
in  depot  there,  by  the  movable  column  from  the  in 
terior  ;  for  the  provisions  convoyed  to  Milianah  from  the 
stores  of  the  Medeah,  had  to  be  replaced  at  this  latter 
place,  so  that  both  towns  might  be  provisioned  beyond 
all  hazard  until  the  coming  October.  No  sooner  had 
we  arrived  at  Blidah,  and  formed  up  on  the  ground  des 
tined  for  our  bivouac,  and  were  on  the  point  of  dismount 
ing,  than  an  order  was  then  for  the  first  time  received  by 
our  colonel,  to  march  us  on  to  Bouffarick,  and  to  order  up 
to  the  main  army,  the  hussar  and  chasseur  squadrons  of 
France,  (the  late  2d  regiment  of  march)  which  had  not 
re-crossed  the  mountains  a  second  time,  to  replace  us. 
A  timely  order,  for  our  horses  were  literally  worn  out. 

The  French  army,  afterwards,  on  receiving  a  new  appro- 
visionment,  returned  to  Medeah,  and  entered  Algiers,  on 
the  5th  of  July,  after  destroying  by  a  "  raziah  "  the  vil 
lages  of  several  tribes,  within  striking  distance  of  Blidah, 
which  had,  however,  hitherto  been  overlooked — a  punish 
ment  brought  on  themselves  for  past  offences. 

Arrive  at  Bouffarick  that  day.  Next  day,  the  colonel, 
myself,  several  officers,  and  escort,  proceed  to  and  arrive 
in  Algiers. 


NOTES. 

(i).  Tunis  was  certainly  not  governed  by  a  king  but  by  a  ^«a«-elected 
Bey,  sometimes  styled  Dey. 

(2).  This  remark  must  refer  to  very  recent  times,  for  there  is  no  spot  to 
which  the  French  had  penetrated  that  they  did  not  find  vestiges  of  Roman 
and  Byzantine  civilization. 

(3).  This  officer,  afterwards  "the  General  commanding  the  Cavalry 
Division  of  the  Imperial  Guard  "  at  Solferino,  was  named  MORRIS,  and  the 
name  in  the  text  was  doubtlessly  written  phonetically,  as  pronounced,  not 
written. 


PHILIP  KEARNY, 

MAJOR   GENERAL,    U.  S.  V. 
BY   HIS   COUSIN, 

JOHN  WATTS  DE  PEYSTER, 

BREV.-MAJ.-GEN.,  NEW   YORK. 


61 


PHILIP   KEARNY. 

MAJOR-GENERAL,  U.  S.  V. 
BY  HIS   COUSIN, 

JOHN  WATTS  DE  PEYSTER, 

BREV.-MAJ.-GEN.,  NEW  YORK. 

PHILIP  KEARNY  was  a  born  soldier.  His  military  in 
stincts  were  hereditary  through  his  mother's  line,  whom 
he  resembled.  They  furnished  to  the  British  Crown  a 
number  of  gallant  and  able  officers,  from  brigadier-general 
down  to  cornet  or  ensign,  who  upheld  the  royal  authority : 
one  dying  Quarter-Master-General  of  the  British  army 
beside  Wellington,  at  Waterloo.  An  uncle  was  Major- 
General  Stephen  Watts  Kearny,  than  whom  no  grander 
specimen  of  an  American  officer  ever  maintained  the  glory 
of  the  country.  Another,  George  Watts,  of  the  U.  S. 
Dragoons,  as  aide-de-camp  to  General  Scott,  saved  the  life 
of  his  chief  by  his  coolness  and  decision  just  before  Chip- 
pewa,  as  that  general  related  to  the  writer  and  others. 
A  third,  a  great-uncle,  Stephen  Watts,  displayed  unusual 
dash,  as  second  in  command  to  his  brother-in-law,  Sir  John 
Johnson,  Bart.,  in  the  bloodiest  conflict  of  the  Revolution 
at  the  north,  where  he  lost  his  leg,  and  was  otherwise 
almost  mortally  wounded,  and  these  references  might  be 
greatly  extended. 

Philip  Kearny  was  originally  intended  for  the  church. 
He  was  brought  up  like  a  brother  with  the  writer  in  the 
home  of  one  of  the  noblest  men  who  ever  lived,  their 
common  grandfather,  Hon.  John  Watts,  founder  and 
endower  of  the  Leake  and  Watts  Orphan  House.  How 
the  idea  of  a  religious  career  for  young  Kearny  could  ever 
have  entered  mortal  brain  now  seems  inexplicable,  because 
from  his  boyhood  all  his  thoughts  seemed  to  run  on 

63 


64  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

soldiers.  Every  fibre  seemed  to  be  continually  vibrating 
with  the  hopes  of  eventually  getting  into  the  army,  of 
tasting  the  fruit  forbidden  him  by  those  that  controlled  him. 

So  soon  as  his  grandfather  died,  and  left  him  very 
wealthy  for  those  times,  and  as  soon  as  he  could  obtain  a 
commission,  he  joined  the  1st  U.  S.  Dragoons,  command 
ed  by  his  uncle,  Stephen  Watts  Kearny,  and  having  been 
appointed  second  lieutenant  March  8,  1837,  ne  at  once 
displayed  the  chivalrous  spirit  which  continued  to  distin 
guish  him  throughout  life.  In  July,  1839,  ne  was  Pr°- 
moted  to  first  lieutenant,  and  acted  asxaid  to  Brigadier- 
General  Atkinson. 

Mr.  Poinsett,  Secretary  of  War,  having  determined  to 
send  out  three  officers  to  study  and  observe  the  cavalry 
tactics  prescribed  for  the  French  army,  and  their  applica 
tion  in  the  field,  Philip  Kearny  was  selected  to  act  as  one 
of  the  commission.  The  three  sailed  from  New  York  in 
August,  1839,  and  on  the  8th  of  October  were  at  the  cav 
alry  school  at  Saumur.  Very  soon,  however,  Kearny — 
after  doing  honor  to  the  country  by  his  elegant  liberality, 
and  giving  a  grand  ball,  which  at  that  time  was  thought 
so  unusually  fine  as  to  be  considered  worthy  of  commem 
oration  in  an  oil  painting  by  a  French  artist — obtained 
leave  of  absence  to  accompany  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  eldest 
son  of  the  king  of  the  French,  to  witness  and  participate 
in  real  war  in  Algiers.*  There  he  had  a  full  opportunity 

*  There  is  a  seeming  contradiction  in  the  narratives  of  General  Kearny's 
services  in  Africa  in  (1839  ?  and)  *%4°>  as  one  appears  in  my  detailed  life  of 
him,  and  another  in  the  pamphlet  to  which  this  sketch  serves  as  an  intro 
duction.  This  discrepancy  is  thus  susceptible  of  explanation.  Philip 
Kearny,  like  most  men  of  his  temperament,  was  subject  to  the  most  con 
tradictory  moods.  Sometimes  he  was  very  taciturn  or  reticent,  especially  as 
to  his  military  services  ;  at  others  he  was  just  as  talkative — always,  how 
ever,  he  wanted  to  tell  his  story  in  his  own  way,  and  when  he  did  so  few 
could  narrate  or  describe  better  than  he  did.  Still  he  so  blended  what  he 
had  heard,  and  which  often  served  as  an  introduction  to  what  he  saw, 
with  what  he  actually  witnessed,  it  was  impossible,  after  a  lapse  of  many 
years,  to  discriminate  between  the  narrative  of  what  he  credited  to  others 
and  what  belonged  to  himself.  This  confusion  was  still  farther  augmented 
by  the  statement  of  the  Prince  de  Joinville,  that  Kearny  was  in  Africa  with 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  65 

to  realize  that  the  lot  of  a  soldier  is  to  suffer  as  well  as 
to  fight,  for  he  underwent  the  severest  suffering  and  took 
part  in  fearful  fighting,  considering  the  dangers  to  which  a 
handful  of  troops — in  comparison  to  the  huge  armies  with 
which  he  was  afterwards  associated — was  exposed  from 
swarms  of  fearless  and  often  intangible  foes.  It  was  almost 
a  repetition  of  the  invasion  of  the  Scythians  by  Cyrus ;  of 

the  elder  brother  of  the  Prince,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  which  was  corroborated 
by  General  de  Trobriand  in  his  "  Military  History  (in  French)  of  the  Four 
Years'  Campaigns  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,"  in  which  he  explicitly 
states  ' '  he  [Kearny]  subsequently  visited  Algeria,  where  he  was  permitted 
to  accompany  the  Duke  of  Orleans  as  honorary  aide-de-camp  during  the 
campaign  of  the  Gates  of  Iron."  Of  this  operation  nothing  appears  in 
Kearny 's  own  pamphlet.  If  he  was  with  the  Duke,  he  has  left  no  record 
of  a  circumstance  which  was  sufficiently  remarkable  to  make  an  indelible 
impression.  At  all  events,  he  must  have  talked  upon  the  subject — which 
was  on  the  lips  of  all  who  were  in  Africa  about  i83g-'4O — in  such  a  manner 
as  to  convey  the  idea  that  he  was  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  or  else  how 
could  de  Trobriand  have  set  it  down,  as  he  has  done,  as  an  undoubted  fact, 
because  Kearny  was  constantly  thrown  in  contact  with  him  for  nearly  a 
year  of  service,  so  to  speak,  as  at  Williamsburg,  almost  side  by  side. 

In  December,  1851,  the  writer  was  detained  at  Toulon  in  consequence  of 
hostilities  which  occurred  in  the  territory  between  that  fortress  and  the  con 
fines  of  Italy.  Toulon  is  the  naval  port  from  which  are  despatched  the  military 
expeditions  to  Africa.  The  landlord  of  the  principal  hotel  instantly  recog 
nized  the  family  likeness  between  the  writer  and  Kearny,  whom  he  remem 
bered  perfectly  well,  was  pleased  to  talk  about  him,  and  repeated  several 
characteristic  anecdotes.  The  memory  of  these  conversations  influenced  the 
chapters  of  the  biography  so  far  as  concerns  the  connection  of  Kearny  with 
the  operations  in  Algeria,  in  which  the  Duke  of  Orleans  participated. 

Long  after  the  biography  had  been  published  and  distributed,  a  single 
copy  of  Kearny's  own  pamphlet  was  sent  anonymously  to  the  writer,  but 
it  was  then  too  late  to  make  use  of  it,  because  all  control  of  the  book  had 
passed  out  of  his  hands. 

Memory  is  a  curious  thing,  and  utterly  untrustworthy  in  the  majority  of 
cases  after  an  interval  of  years,  so  much  so  that  the  writer,  who  has  pub 
lished  a  number  of  works  connected  with  the  history  of  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  scarcely  recalls  a  single  instance  where  the  reminiscences  of  one 
who  served  in  the  war  were  identical  with  the  diary  or  memoranda  of  the 
same  person  made  and  kept  at  the  time.  Nor  should  the  anecdote  be  for 
gotten  which  is  told  of  the  Prince  Regent,  afterwards  George  IV.,  who  is 
said  to  have  heard  and  talked  so  much  of  Waterloo,  that  it  was  reported, 
half  in  earnest  and  half  in  jest,  that  the  Prince  had  actually  worked  himself 
up  into  the  belief  that  he  was  present  in  that  battle,  and  absolutely  related 
what  had  been  told  to  him  as  things  that  he  had  actually  seen. 


66  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

the  Parthians  by  Crassus  ;  or  of  the  Everglades,  held  by 
the  Seminoles,  by  successive  United  States  commanders. 

As  the  narrative  of  what  Kearny  saw  in  Algiers  consti 
tutes  the  body  of  the  volume,  to  which  this  sketch  serves 
as  an  introduction,  there  is  no  necessity  to  dwell  upon  the 
theme.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  when  the  writer,  ten  years 
later,  was  in  Algiers  he  was  recognized  from  a  strong  fam 
ily  resemblance,  and  heard  from  private  and  officer  the 
highest  praise  of  the  dashing  American,  who  shunned  no 
hardship,  and  still,  as  an  exemplar,  lived  in  the  brightest 
memories  of  the  corps  with  which  he  served. 

One  anecdote  upon  which  he  used  to  dwell  demonstrates 
one  of  the  ugliest  features  of  Algerian  war.  Marshal 
Valle"e — whatever  may  have  been  his  capacity — was  cer 
tainly  noted  for  the  severity  of  his  discipline  and  his  lack 
of  sympathy  for  his  troops.  On  one  occasion,  after  a  hot 
day  of  march  and  skirmish,  the  surgeons  had  established 
their  arrangements  for  the  night,  and  pitched  the  hospital 
tents  in  the  most  salubrious  situation  to  take  advantage 
of  the  slightest  zephyr  of  a  torrid  African  night. 

When  Vallee  rode  up  he  thought  that  there  was  just 
the  nicest  spot  for  his  own  marquee,  and  hustled  off  the 
sick  and  wounded  to  a  locality  which,  as  it  turned  out, 
was  most  exposed  to  the  onfall  of  a  foe  cunning  as  wild 
beasts  in  their  thirst  for  blood.  Amid  the  darkness  the 
Arabs  or  Kabyles  surprised  the  surgeons'  quarters,  mas 
sacred  some  if  not  all  of  the  invalids,  and,  according  to 
custom,  cut  off  as  many  heads  as  possible  to  bear  off  as 
trophies.  Our  American  soldiers  would  scarcely  have 
stood  the  rough  usage  to  which  the  French  were  subjected. 
The  writer  returned  from  Algiers  in  a  steamer  which  car 
ried  a  deck-load  of  wounded  and  convalescents,  who  were 
exposed  without  shelter  to  the  rain,  the  bitter  cold,  and  the 
heavy  seas  which  swept  the  vessel  from  stem  to  stern.  It 
was  a  very  protracted,  circuitous,  and  tempestuous  pas 
sage.  Twice  the  steamer  was  driven  by  a  fierce  mistral 
into  the  Spanish  port  of  Palamos,  and  throughout,  in  full 
sight,  the  Pyrenees  were  plainly  visible,  so  completely 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  67 

covered  with  snow,  from  base  to  summit,  that  they  resem 
bled  nothing  else  than  Titanic  loaves  of  white  sugar.  It 
is  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that  an  expedition  into  the 
Atlas  has  the  slightest  resemblance  to  Sherman's  picnick 
ing  through  Georgia  or  his  "  holiday  "  "  march  to  the  sea." 
Amid  the  Atlas  supreme  heat  and  extreme  cold  alternate ; 
the  rain  beats  down  with  a  violence  that,  to  use  a  prover 
bial  expression,  the  huge  drops  falling  they  sound  upon 
the  tents  as  if  these  were  thrashed  with  rods.  The  snow 
fall  is  likewise  tremendous,  so  that  the  French  retreat, 
from  their  first  attempt  upon  Constantine  in  the  late  fall  of 
1836,  was  attended,  upon  a  smaller  scale,  with  many  of  the 
horrors  of  Napoleon's  return  from  Moscow.  This  is 
mentioned  to  show  the  "  bitter-sweet "  of  Kearny's  first 
experience  of  campaigning. 

Such  was  his  gallantry  during  the  campaign  which  he 
described,  that  it  was  the  desire  of  the  French  king  to  con 
fer  upon  him  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor ;  but  he 
was  compelled  to  refuse  the  coveted  distinction,  because 
our  government,  much  more  strict  with  her  officers  in 
those  days  of  comparatively  pure  republicanism,  would 
not  permit  its  representatives  to  accept  foreign  decorations 
or  gifts.  Nowadays  they  are  accepted  and  worn  openly, 
and  apparently  without  interference  or  question. 

On  his  return  from  Europe,  in  the  fall  of  1840,  Kearny  was 
appointed  aide-de-camp  to  Major-General  Macomb,  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  United  States  Army,  and  remained 
with  him  until  the  latter's  death,  25th  of  June,  1841.  From 
October  to  December  of  that  year  he  was  on  duty  at  the 
United  States  cavalry  barracks  at  Carlisle,  Pa.  Thence 
he  returned  to  Washington  as  aide-de-camp  to  Major- 
General  Winfield  Scott,  next  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
United  States  Army.  With  him  Kearny  remained — "  dis 
pensing  elegant  hospitality" — from  December,  1841,  to 
April,  1844,  when  he  was  relieved  and  ordered  to  join  his 
company.  On  the  I2th  of  May,  1844,  he  was  with  his 
regiment  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  was  enabled  by  his 
experience  in  Africa  to  prepare  his  immediate  command 


68  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

for  efficient  service  against  the  Indians,  and  the  projected 
display  of  'our  military  strength  upon  the  plains. 

From  May,  1845,  commanding  his  company,  Kearny 
served  under  his  uncle  and  colonel,  on  an  expedition  to  the 
South  Pass  at  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

On  his  return,  tired  of  the  apparent  endless  prospects 
of  mere  routine  service  after  having  tasted  the  "  joys  of 
battle,"  he  resigned  his  commission,  6th  April,  1846. 
Scarcely  had  he  done  so,  when  it  became  manifest  that 
the  country  was  to  be  engaged  in  a  war  with  Mexico,  and 
he  applied  to  be  reinstated.  His  application  was  granted 
1 5th  April,  1846,  and  he  was  sent  west  to  complete  his 
model  company  of  dragoons,  one  which  never  had  a 
superior,  if  an  equal,  in  the  service,  as  to  men,  horses 
(grays),  and  equipment.  While  recruiting  and  mounting  his 
troops,  expending  his  own  money  freely  to  secure  hand 
somer  and  better  animals,  he  encountered  Mr.  Lincoln, 
who  when  he  became  President,  at  once,  with  pleasure, 
recognized  in  the  New  Jersey  Brigadier  the  "  Mr.  Kerny," 
as  he  always  called  him,  who  had  so  impressed  him 
fifteen  years  previously.  In  December,  1846,  he  received 
his  commission  as  captain,  and  his  crack  company  became 
the  body-guard  of  Major-General  Scott.  Doing  his  duty 
to  the  letter,  Kearny,  nevertheless,  had  no  opportunity  to 
make  a  mark  until  he  made  his  way  across  the  Pedregal — 
a  vast  field  of  lava  near  the  City  of  Mexico, — which  sep 
arated  the  two  wings  of  the  American  army.  According 
to  the  usual  mode  of  crediting  every  remarkable  deed  to 
an  especial  favorite,  the  successful  traversing  on  horseback 
of  this  lava-bed — hitherto  considered  impracticable  for 
mounted  men — was  passed  to  the  credit  of  Robert  E. 
Lee,  afterwards  the  most  prominent  rebel  commander. 
It  was  a  reconnoissance  necessary  to  learn  the  possibility  of 
establishing  communications  between  the  disunited  grand 
divisions.  The  writer  understood  at  the  time  that  Kearny 
was  the  first  who  made  the  transit,  and  Kearny  himself 
always  dwelt  upon  this  act  as  one  of  the  most  difficult 
feats  he  had  ever  performed.  Kearny,  if  not  the  first, 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  69 

was  certainly  one  of  the  first  who  was  able  to  do  it.  It 
was  wonderful  how  he  succeeded  in  accomplishirfg  the 
passage,  for  he  made  his  way  over  at  night — moonlight, 
however,  it  is  true — leaping  his  horse  over  the  clefts,  which 
nobody  but  a  fearless  rider  like  himself  would  ever  have 
dreamed  of  attempting.  Always  having  so  much  to  say 
on  a  subject  near  to  the  heart  and  ever  denied  sufficient 
space  to  express  it,  except  in  dry  and  concise  language 
forbidding  all  attempts  to  present  a  vivid  word-picture,  it 
is  necessary  to  omit  many  details  and  pass  at  once  to  the 
"Charge  of  the  One  Hundred,"  which,  in  some  respects, 
was  as  worthy  of  commemoration  as  the  "  Charge  of  the 
Six  Hundred,"  sung  by  the  Poet  Laureate  of  Britain. 

Previous  to  the  battle  of  Churubusco,  Kearny  had 
solicited  from  his  friendly  chief  permission,  for  the  time 
being,  to  intermit  his  services  at  head-quarters  and  partici 
pate  in  the  impending  battle.  The  request  was  granted, 
and  if  Kearny  had  been  allowed  to  complete  his  charge 
that  day  and  he  had  been  supported  in  it,  the  Americans 
would  have  entered  the  Mexican  capital  on  the  1 8th 
August,  and  that  triumph  would  not  have  been  postponed 
until  the  I4th  of  September,  with  all  the  intervening  use 
less  slaughter  and  uncertainty. 

But  let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  the  first  man  who  had 
entered  sword  in  hand  the  gate  of  that  capital  was 
Captain  Philip  Kearny. 

There  are  very  few  people  who  are  sufficiently  level 
headed  to  judge  for  themselves,  and  even  fewer  possess 
the  courage  to  resist  the  influence  of  men  in  high 
position,  who  too  often  owe  it  to  any  cause  but  merit  ; 
therefore,  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  argue  with  the  stupid 
masses,  but  simply  necessary  to  state  that  some  of  the 
wisest  critics  on  war  consider  that  the  trinity  of  qualities 
which  command  success  are  audacity  or  energy,  judgment 
of  locality,  and  appreciation  of  time.  The  expression  of 
horse  jockeys,  that  time  is  a  hard  horse  to  beat  about  sum 
marizes  the  whole  matter.  General  Latrille,  one  of  the 
officers  produced  by  the  great  French  Revolution,  adopted 


70  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

as  the  motto  for  his  work,  "  Reflections  on  Modern  War/' 
published  in  the  winter  of  1801,  a  work  which  soon  became 
scarce,  remarks :  "  In  war  audacity  is  almost  always  pru 
dence."  In  chapter  XIV  he  cites  Marshal  Saxe,  who,  he 
says,  struck  out  a  great  idea  when  he  predicted  that  the 
great  secret  of  battles  would  one  day  be  found  to  consist 
in  a  combination  of  rapidity  and  order.  There  are  crises 
in  battles  and  in  campaigns,  when  scarcely  any  sacrifice  is 
too  great  for  the  gain  or  the  utilization  of  time.  Such  a 
crisis  occurred  when  Kearny  made  his  charge  at  Churu- 
busco,  and  the  mistake  made  in  not  following  up  and  sup 
porting  it  was  inexcusable.  On  the  heels  of  Kearny  the 
American  army  could  have  gone  into  Mexico,  and  all  the 
loss  of  life  and  time,  which  occurred  subsequently  and  pre 
vious  to  the  occupation  of  the  Mexican  capital,  was  simple 
waste,  and  worse — the  risk  of  losing  all  that  an  apprecia 
tion  of  the  circumstances  would  have  insured.  James 
Walker,  the  greatest  military  painter  that  this  country  has 
ever  produced — perhaps,  in  very  truth,  the  only  one, — 
executed  in  oil  two  exquisite  representations  of  the  begin 
ning,  with  about  100  men,  and  the  end  of  this  charge, 
with  about  a  dozen.  They  belong  to  the  writer,  and  any 
one  who  examines  them  cannot  fail  to  recognize  in  these 
perfect  cabinet  pictures  the  course  and  conclusion  of  that 
cavalry  charge,  which  is  worthy  to  rank  with  the  charge 
of  the  British  cavalry,  i$th  Light  Dragoons,  at  Villiers-en- 
Couche,  towards  Cambray,  a  most  marvellous  operation, 
24th  April,  1794,  and  that  of  the  Polish  Lancers  of  Na 
poleon's  Imperial  Guard  in  the  Pass  of  Somo-Sierra,  in 
1808,  or  that  of  the  "  British  Light  Brigade,"  at  Balaclava, 
in  1855. 

No  mean  romantic  prose-poet,  Mayne  Reid,  has  like 
wise  celebrated  Kearny's  achievements.  Reid,  then  a  cap 
tain  of  the  New  York  Volunteers  in  the  United  States 
service,  who,  like  Walker,  the  painter,  witnessed  the  charge, 
commemorated  in  his  magazine  "  Onward "  the  glorious 
feat  of  arms,  of  which,  as  a  fellow-soldier,  and  having  seen 
it,  he  appreciated  the  gallantry  and  grandeur.  When 


PHILIP   KEARNY,  Jl 

so  much  has  got  to  be  told  in  a  very  few  pages,  the  prin 
cipal  events  in  a  grand  career  must  serve  simply  as  step 
ping-stones  to  carry  the  reader  across  the  broad  current 
of  many  years. 

In  the  summer  of  1851,  Kearny  was  ordered  to  Califor 
nia,  again  to  take  command  of  his  company.  He  had 
scarcely  been  transferred  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  when  he  demonstrated  the  truth  of  what  has  so  often 
been  claimed  for  him,  that  he  seemed  destined  to  shine  in 
whatever  he  undertook.  His  summer  campaign  of  1851, 
against  the  Rogue  River  Indians,  was  one  of  the  most  tell 
ing  blows  ever  delivered  by  our  army  in  this  harassing 
warfare.  These  savages,  at  that  period,  were  the  most 
wicked,  most  warlike,  and  most  difficult  to  subdue  of  all 
the  tribes  on  our  Pacific  coast.  What  rendered  them  more 
formidable  was  the  fact  that  they  occupied  a  district 
which  intercepted  all  intercourse  between  Oregon  and 
California ;  they  were  scattered  along  and  across  the  direct 
road,  north  and  south,  on  the  banks  of  the  Rogue  River, 
which  drains  a  rugged,  mountainous  wilderness,  and 
flows,  as  a  general  thing,  west,  and  perpendicular  to  the 
coast,  emptying  into  the  Pacific,  twenty  miles  south  of 
Port  Orford,  and  fifty  miles  north  of  Crescent  City. 

Major-General  Rufus  Ingalls  told  me  :  "  This  handsome 
campaign  opened  that  country " ;  and  Governor  Joseph 
Lane  wrote  to  me,  in  1868 : 

"  During  the  summer  of  1851,  Major  Phil.  Kearny  re 
ceived  orders  to  proceed,  with  two  companies  of  United 
States  Dragoons,  Captains  Stewart  and  Walker,  from 
Oregon,  to  some  point  in  California.  En  route,  he  was 
informed  of  a  recent  attack  of  the  Rogue  River  Indians, 
in  which  they  succeeded  in  killing  quite  a  number  of 
miners,  and  doing  other  mischief.  These  Indians  were  at 
that  time  the  most  warlike  and  formidable  tribe  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  Never  having  known  defeat,  they  were  ex 
ceedingly  bold  in  their  depredations  upon  the  miners  and 
settlers,  and  were  the  terror  of  all.  Major  Kearny  deter 
mined,  if  possible,  to  give  them  battle,  and  finally  found 


72  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

them,  three  hundred  braves  strong,  in  the  occupation  of 
an  excellent  position.  He  ordered  an  attack,  and,  after  a 
sharp  engagement,  succeeded  in  dislodging  them,  killing, 
wounding,  and  capturing  fifty  or  more.  It  was  here  that 
the  lamented,  brave,  and  brilliant  Stewart  fell.  The  In 
dians  retreated  across  Rogue  River,  and  feeling  that  they 
had  not  been  sufficiently  chastised,  the  Major  concluded 
to  pursue  them,  and,  whilst  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
purpose,  I  joined  him.  He  followed  until  the  Indians 
made  a  stand,  quite  favorable  to  themselves,  on  Evans 
Creek,  about  thirty  miles  distant  from  the  scene  of  their 
late  disaster.  Here  he  again  attacked  them,  killed  and 
wounded  a  few,  and  captured  about  forty,  among  the  lat 
ter  a  very  important  prisoner  in  the  person  of  the  Great 
Chief's  favorite  wife.  By  means  of  this  capture,  and 
these  successes,  an  advantageous  peace  was  obtained. 
Being  an  eye-witness,  in  part,  of  Kearny's  movements 
and  action,  I  can,  with  great  truth,  and  do  with  no  less 
pleasure,  bear  testimony  to  his  gallantry  as  a  soldier  and 
his  ability  as  an  officer.  I  was  then,  and  still  am,  sensible 
of  the  great  good  secured  to  Oregon  by  his  achievements 
at  that  particular  time." 

On  the  9th  October,  1851,  Major  Kearny  again  resigned 
from  the  army,  and  sailing  from  San  Francisco,  made  a 
voyage  round  the  world.  What  he  saw — and  he  visited  a 
great  many  places  whither,  at  that  time,  our  people  seldom 
went — he  described  with  vigor  and  effect,  but  on  that  it  is 
not  permitted  here  to  enter.  In  1853  he  was  in  Paris,  and 
thence  returned  home,  recalled  by  urgent  business.  Then 
it  was  that  he  met  with  a  very  severe  accident,  which 
served  as  a  "  bitter  spring  "  to  influence  his  after  life,  and 
doubtless  prevented  him  from  proceeding  to  the  Crimea. 
In  1856,  he  was  present  in  Moscow  at  the  coronation  of 
Alexander  II.,  then  visited  Spain  and  returned  to  Paris, 
where  he  was  living  when  the  war  was  determined  upon 
with  the  Austrians,  in  Italy.  Sufficient  be  it  to  say  that 
he  behaved  so  well  there,  especially  at  Solferino,  that, 
upon  the  recommendation  of  the  French  cavalry  general, 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  73 

Morris,  to  whose  command  he  was  immediately  attached, 
he  received  the  Cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  Here,  in 
spite  of  restricted  space,  his  judgment  upon  the  final 
battle  of  the  campaign  must  be  admitted.  He  always 
agreed  with  the  opinion,  expressed  so  often,  century  after 
century,  that  it  has  almost  passed  into  a  proverb :  "  No 
Austrian  army  ever  fought  a  battle  out."  This  is  about 
equivalent  to  the  erroneous  judgment  upon  which  Grant 
determined,  after  being  made  Lieutenant-General,  to  stay 
with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  see  that  it  did  this, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  he  fought  it  to  pieces.  Kearny 
said :  "  Had  the  Austrians  fought  at  Solferino  as  the 
English  at.  Inkerman — {  a  soldier's  fight/  as  the  English 
commander  admits, — the  French  would  not  have  had  the 
ghost  of  a  chance." 

It  was  conceded  by  those  who  had  the  best  opportunity 
of  judging,  even  by  rebel  agents  and  advocates,  that 
Major  Kearny  rendered  important  services  to  the  loyal 
North  in  Paris  when  the  ominous  clouds  were  gathering 
together  which  broke  in  the  tempest  of  Rebellion  in 
1861.  And  then,  when  the  storm  had  burst  upon  the 
country,  he  hastened  to  do  with  his  single  hand  what  he 
had  hitherto  done  with  his  equally  trenchant  tongue. 
In  the  prime  of  life,  highly  cultivated  in  the  theory  of 
his  profession,  as  well  as  practically  acquainted  with  the 
working  of  it,  with  the  experience  of  46  years,  he  had 
a  right  to  suppose  that  his  claims  for  a  brigadier-general 
ship  would  have  been  graciously  received  and  promptly 
granted  by  his  native  State,  New  York.  Backed  by  the 
testimonials  of  Scott  and  others,  he  would  have  done 
better  in  going  direct  to  Lincoln,  who  would  have  under 
stood  and  appreciated  the  man,  the  "  Mr.  Kerny  "  he  so 
admired  for  his  soldiership  and  liberality  and  energy  in 
1846.  Instead  Kearny  presented  himself  to  the  solid 
(sarcastic)  war  committee  of  his  native  State  as  a  son 
offering  his  primal  services  to  a  parent  who  is  entitled  to 
it.  With  a  stolidity  of  which  the  case  of  Kearny  was  by 
no  means  the  only  example,  they  ignored  the  claims 


74  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

of  his  generous  heart,  his  full  brain,  and  his  empty  sleeve. 
They  also  rejected  the  services  of  others  capable  of 
returning  a  hundred-fold  for  the  commission  demanded, 
but  none  more  able  or  brave  than  Phil  Kearny.  The 
writer  as  of  first  knowledge  knows  this.  Then  with  a  feel 
ing  such  as  was  evinced  when  "  Paul  and  Barnabas  waxed 
bold  "  and  said,  rejected  by  the  Jews,  "  Now  we  turn  to  the 
Gentiles,"  Kearny  turned  to  the  gallant  little  State  of  New 
Jersey.  With  a  sense  that  was  totally  wanting  in  the  old 
fogies,  the  hackneyed  politicians,  and  the  big  wigs  of  New 
York,  who  could  see  virtue  in  bullies  and  bummers  and 
braggarts  and  beats,  while  they  were  blind  to  real  merit 
and  the  distinction  of  position  and  power  of  mind,  New 
Jersey  gladly  accepted  the  services  of  Major  Philip 
Kearny,  gave  him  a  brigade  and  have  never  been  forget 
ful  of  the  return  service  that  he  rendered,  except  when 
there  was  at  her  head  one  who  is  said  to  have  committed 
"  posthumous  hari-kiri  "  or  suicide,  showing  who,  however 
severe  has  been  the  judgment  of  any  writer  upon  him  while 
living,  by  a  very  poetical  as  well  as  practical  justice,  him 
self  proved  by  what  he  left  behind  that  Kearny's  condem 
nation  was  not  too  severe."  "  A  model  brigade  and  a  pat 
tern  brigade  commander  reported  to  General  Scott  at 
Washington,  three  regiments,  on  the  2pth  June,  1861, 
and  a  fourth  regiment,  with  a  battery  of  six  pieces,  on  the 
2ist  August  following.  It  was  on  time,  in  time,  and  at 
the  nick  of  time.  The  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  was  fought 
and  lost  on  the  2ist  July.  In  the  Tohu-Bohu  succeeding 
that  military  disaster,  such  a  general  as  Kearny  and 
such  a  force  as  the  First  New  Jersey  Brigade  was  the  one 
thing  needed.  On  the  2Qth  September,  Kearny  made  the 
first  important  demonstration  which  occurred  since  the 
loss  of  Bull  Run.  During  that  terrible  fall  and  winter  of 
inertion,  disgraceful  to  the  chief  upon  whom  the  guilt 
must  rest,  although  he  alone  was  not  guilty,  because  he 
had  plenty  of  backers  who  knew  better,  Kearny,  who  al 
though  in  one  sense  compulsorily  idle  through  others,  was 
very  industrious  in  every  direction  which  depended  upon 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  75 

himself  alone.  With  the  first  days  of  spring,  1862,  the 
second  advance  to  Manassas  was  permitted.  The  word 
permitted  is  italicized  because  McClellan  hobbled  ahead 
while  Kearny  flew.  On  Sunday,  Qth  March,  Kearny 's 
troops  were  at  Sangster's  R.  R.  station  between  3  and  4 
P.  M.,  over  eleven  miles  in  advance  of  any  other  part  of 
the  army  moving  in  that  direction,  and  sent  the  enemy  fly 
ing.  On  Monday  by  1 1  A.  M.  he  was  in  Centreville.  As 
it  was,  Kearny  did  enough  to  show  what  he  might  have 
done  had  he  been  let  loose  instead  of  being  pulled  to  and 
fro  by  see-saw  orders.  His  report  of  what  he  did  do,  was 
not  only  suppressed  but  must  have  been  destroyed,  be 
cause  it  was  not  and  has  never  been  found,  unless  it  has 
turned  up  when  too  late  after  Colonel  Scott  took  charge 
of  the  chaos  of  military  documents  long  after  the  war. 
New  Jersey,  however,  highly  appreciated  what  her  mili 
tary  representative  in  the  field  had  done. 

Then,  after  Manassas,  was  the  time  to  have  gone  ahead. 
A  bold  "  forward  "  then  would  have  carried  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  on  the  heels  of  the  flying  or  retreating 
enemy,  into  Richmond.  No  directing  mind  seemed  to 
recognize  that  "a  victorious  army  is  insensible  to  fatigue," 
and  that,  as  Marshal  Saxe  said,  "  a  beaten  enemy  can  be 
pursued  with  the  rattling  of  peas  in  bladders." 

After  this  the  armed  colossus  relapsed  into  paralysis. 

"  The  Affair  of  Rivers  "  was  decided  on,  and  in  March  and 
in  April  was  carried  into  execution.  Kearny  sailed  with 
the  rest  on  the  i/th  April,  and  remained  cooped  up  on  the 
transports  until  the  3<Dth.  Meanwhile  a  vacancy  occurred 
in  the  command  of  the  third  division — which  became  the 
first  on  the  3d  August  following — of  the  third  army  corps, 
and  it  was  given  to  Kearny.  He  left  his  New  Jersey  bri 
gade  with  sorrow  and  pain,  and  his  troops  saw  him  go  with 
tears  and  grief.  The  miscalled  siege  of  Yorktown,  of 
which  the  defence  was  a  bluff  on  the  part  of  the  rebels 
and  a  disgrace  to  the  general  before  their  works,  ended 
on  the  night  of  the  3d  May.  Jameson,  "  general  of  the 
trenches  "  one  of  Kearny's  new  brigadiers,  was  the  first 


76  PHILIP  KEARNY 

to  enter  the  rebel  works  at  6  A.  M.,  4th  May.  While  other 
troops  marched  off  in  pursuit  of  the  retreating  enemy, 
Kearny  was  left  behind,  so  that  when  Hooker  overtook 
the  rebels  at  Williamsburgh,  Kearny  had  been  left  far  in 
the  rear.  Hooker,  by  afternoon,  had  fought  as  stiff  a 
fight  as  was  ever  fought  by  any  portion  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  and  was  about  fought  out,  having,  as  he  said, 
been  left  to  take  care  of  himself  with  thirty  thousand  good 
soldiers  standing  by  like  spectators  without  rendering  any 
support.  This  is  not  as  strong  as  Hooker  put  it  in  his  re 
port.  When,  "  faint  but  pursuing,"  Hooker  looked  around 
for  the  help  at  hand,  which  did  not  stretch  out  a  hand  to 
help  him,  all  at  once  help  did  come  that  could  have  been 
least  expected  to  arrive,  and  Kearny  thrust  himself  in  be 
tween  Hooker  and  the  horror  of  the  situation.  Kearny, 
whose  division  was  the  last  to  leave  the  lines  at  York- 
town,  was  the  first  to  come  up  and  save  Hooker,  plowing 
through  the  ocean  of  mud,  through  obstacles  natural  and 
unnatural,  through  the  dilatory,  the  malingerers,  the 
exhausted,  unwilling,  and  mishandled.  Kearny  saved 
Hooker,  as  Stevenson  testifies,  in  every  sense  of  the  word. 
At  what  time  Kearny  got  upon  the  ground  has  been  dis 
cussed  until  the  subject  is  threadbare.  He  himself  says  2 
P.  M.  One  of  his  aides-de-camp,  in  a  letter  from  the  bat 
tlefield,  fixes  2:30  P.  M.  Subsequently,  in  conversation, 
the  same  aide  stated  that  Kearny  ordered  him  to  keep  the 
time,  and  he  did  so ;  that  the  actual  record  was  lost,  but 
that  he  knew  that  Kearny  got  up  at  2:30  P.  M.,  and  that 
his  regiments  were  engaged  at  3  P.  M.  Heintzelman  tes 
tifies  to  the  earlier  hour  of  2:30  P.  M.,  and  the  Evening 
Post's  war  correspondent  corroborates  Kearny's  own  opin 
ion  of  2  P.  M. 

The  battle  of  Williamsburgh,  Monday,  5th  May,  1862, 
cannot  be  fought  over  again  here,  although  it  was  the 
first  stand-up  and  stick-to-it  fight  of  the  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac  which  had  always  had  fight  enough  in  it  if  he  at  the 
head  had  let  it  get  out.  It  was  the  crimson  aurora  of  the 
magnificent  day  illumined  by  the  glory  of  "  the  old  fight- 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  77 

ing  third  corps  as  WE  understand  it,"  of  which  the  badge, 
the  diamond,  was  instituted  by  Kearny,  upon  which  the 
brilliant  sunset  at  Appomattox  Court  House  of  Qth  April, 
1865,  closed  in  upon  the  few  veteran  remnants  of  organiza 
tions  that  witnessed  the  day-spring  about  three  years  and 
eleven  months  previously. 

O  that  space  would  permit  an  adequate  development 
of  all  that  the  writer  knew,  knows,  and  has  learned  since ! 
In  1869  he  published  his  "  Personal  and  Military  History 
of  Philip  Kearny " :  alas  for  him  styled  by  General 
Scott  "  the  bravest  man  I  ever  knew,  and  the  most  per 
fect  soldier,"  the  pen  must  travel  on  with  giant  strides  in 
seven-league  boots!  Of  the  Peninsula  campaign  from 
Williamsburgh  to  Malvern  Hill,  Kearny  expressed  his 
opinion  in  language  more  just  than  agreeable.  He  fore 
saw  every  thing,  and,  like  all  trustworthy  prophets,  he  had 
no  hearing,  and  the  disaster  which  he  felt  must  come,  fell 
upon  the  army  like  shocks  of  an  earthquake.  Never  did 
man  do  his  duty  better.  His  conduct  at  Seven  Pines 
evoked  the  ringing  verses  of  Stedman,  all  sufficient  to 
crown  him  as  a  poet  if  he  had  never  written  any  thing 
else.  At  Fair  Oaks  or  Seven  Pines  Kearny  and  Hooker 
could  have  gone  into  Richmond,  supported  by  the  bull 
dog  Sumner,  if  they  had  been  permitted  ;  again,  at  Fair 
Oaks,  second,  (Oak-Grove  or  the  Orchard),  the  first  of 
those  grand  and  never-to-be-forgotten  contests  called  "  the 
Seven  Days  of  Battle."  That  he  was  all  himself  at  Sav 
age  Station  and  in  White  Oak  Swamp  or  at  Glendale, 
Fraser  or  Nelson's  farm  or  Newmarket  Cross-roads.  There 
can  be  no  denial  that  in  the  latter  he  was  magnificent. 
The  story  has  been  told  by  an  officer  and  eye-witness 
in  tones  that  rang  like  blasts  of  the  "air-shattering 
trumpet." 

Glendale  resulted  in  a  victory  for  the  Union  forces. 
"  The  rebel  troops  became  a  mob,  and  fled  in  terror  tow 
ard  Richmond."  "A  mournful  wail  was  heard  from  Glen 
dale  during  that  long  dismal  night,  lit  up  by  the  red  glare 
of  torches  flitting  to  and  fro  as  the  rebels  gathered  up 


78  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

their  wounded.  On  this  occasion  Kearny  held  about  the 
centre  of  our  line." 

During  the  Six  Days'  Retreat  and  the  Seven  Days' 
Fighting,  Kearny  seems  to  have  been  the  only  general 
whose  foresight  is  demonstrated  by  recorded  words  ;  who 
perceived  that  the  danger  arose  from  moral  feebleness  in 
the  direction  which  could  be  only  met  by  extra  exertion 
and  prevision  on  the  part  of  the  subordinates. 

Tuesday,  1st  July,  1862,  our  "Boys  in  Blue"  were 
drawn  up  on  the  pleasant  estate  of  Dr.  Carter,  known  as 
Malvern  Hill,  and  there  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  won  a 
Hohenlinden  victory  which,  under  any  other  general, 
would  have  been  improved,  and  resulted  in  the  capture  of 
Richmond. 

Kearny  occupied  the  centre  of  the  line.  However  well 
the  loyal  troops  fought,  no  part  of  the  result  was  due  to  the 
Commander-in-Chief.  It  has  been  a  matter  of  question  if 
he  was  on  the  field  ;  he  certainly  did  not  post  his  army. 
After  the  final  clinch  on  the  bloody  slope  of  Malvern 
Hill,  when  the  enemy  recoiled,  bleeding  and  crushed, 
from  the  unbroken  and  defiant  Union  line,  Kearny  felt, 
through  every  fibre  of  his  spirit,  that  a  swift  advance 
would  have  crushed  the  exhausted  rebel  force,  and,  by 
the  seizure  of  its  capital,  dealt  a  death-blow  to  the  Rebel 
Government.  The  failure  to  seize  any  of  these  opportu 
nities  extorted  from  "  the  brave  and  chivalrous  Kearny," 
the  memorable  condemnation  attributed  to  him  in  more 
than  one  popular  history,  which  was  uttered  in  the  pres 
ence  of  several  officers,  and  recorded  in  a  number  of 
letters  and  narratives. 

The  administration  having  determined  to  withdraw 
McClellan's  army  from  Harrison's  Landing,  where  he  had 
"  packed  it  like  herrings  in  a  box,"  Kearny 's  division 
marched  thence  on  the  i$th  August,  reached  Yorktown 
on  the  2Oth,  embarked  on  transports,  landed  at  Alexan 
dria,  and  at  1:30  P.M.  of  the  next  day  was  at  Burke's  Sta 
tion.  On  the  23d  succeeding  that  "  night  of  darkness  and 
storm,"  "  that  terrible  night  of  the  22d,"  Colonel  Paine's 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  79 

"  darkest  night  he  ever  knew,"  "  Kearny's  division  and 
Meade's  Pennsylvania  Reserves  were  the  first  troops  from 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  re-inforce — that  is,  effect 
ively,  in  face  of  the  enemy — the  Army  of  Virginia." 

Justice  has  never  been  done  to  Pope,  but  every  kind  of 
injustice.  If  the  same  kind  of  justice  had  been  done  to 
those  deserving  it,  one  would  have  been  spared  the  oppor 
tunity  of  furnishing  materials  for  a  book  by  which  he 
is  said  to  have  committed  "post-mortem  hari-kiri."  Had 
Pope  been  supported  as  Humphreys  said  Hancock  always 
supported  his  brother  corps-commanders,  and  as  Hum 
phreys  himself  ever  lent  assistance  to  those  who  needed 
it,  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  would  not  have  sur 
vived  to  fight  a  drawn  battle  at  Antietam,  nor  would 
those  who  succeeded  Pope  have  had  other  chances  to 
display  incapacity  or  whatever  else  characterized  the 
doings  which  read  so  painfully  in  the  history  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac. 

Kearny  seemed  to  feel  none  of  that  unwillingness  to 
serve  under  Pope  which  actuated  so  many  of  his  rank  in 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  He  appeared  to  comprehend 
the  whole  case. 

"  How  do  they  expect  Pope,"  he  wrote,  under  date  of 
August  4,  1862,  "  to  beat,  with  a  very  inferior  force,  the 
veterans  of  Ewell  and  Jackson  ?  Get  me  and  my  '  fighting 
division '  with  Pope "  and  in  the  same  letter,  "  With 
Pope's  army  I  would  breathe  again." 

O  that  opportunity  was  afforded  to  renew  in  this  con 
nection  the  bitter  grief  which  fills  the  writer's  heart  at 
recalling  the  events  which  preceded  and  led  up  to  the 
engagement  at  Chantilly,  which  was  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  subordinately  but  immediately  decisive  conflicts  of 
the  war ! 

Count  Tolstoi  in  his  "  War  and  Peace  " — a  novel,  a  ser 
mon,  a  history,  and  a  criticism  combined, — but  more  de 
cidedly  in  his  "  Napoleon  and  the  Russian  Campaign," 
has  shown  how  little  men,  popularly  rated  as  great,  have 
to  do  with  the  circumstances  over  which  to  the  masses 


80  PHILIP  KEARNY. 

they  appear  to  exercise  control.  Still  if  McClellan  and 
those  that  he  influenced  had  done  by  Pope  a  small  share  of 
what  Kearny  did  for  Hooker  at  Williamsburgh,  Lee  would 
have  been  defeated,  crushed,  ruined,  and  if  human  testi 
mony  without  corroborating  contemporary  documents  is 
trustworthy,  Kearny,  not  McClellan  again,  would  have 
been  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac ;  but  it  was 
not  so  to  be. 

In  presenting  the  character  of  General  Kearny  it  is 
an  extremely  difficult  task  to  convey  a  correct  impression, 
or,  rather,  to  do  justice  to  him.  The  veteran  General 
Scott  summed  him  up  as  "  the  bravest  man  I  ever  knew, 
and  the  most  perfect  soldier."  "  No  officer  living,"  said  the 
great  William  III.,  of  Orange,  "who  has  seen  so  little  ser 
vice  as  my  Lord  Marlborough  [who,  after  Wellington,  was 
the  first  of  English  generals]  is  so  fit  for  great  commands." 
Perhaps  no  equal  number  of  words  could  be  selected  to 
express  more  justly  Phil  Kearny's  capabilities  for  a 
"  great  captain."  Again,  the  memorial  of  the  famous 
Count  William  of  Schaumburg-Lippe  characterizes  its 
subject  as  "  Ein  Mann  voll  stiller  Grosse."  This,  likewise, 
is  appropriate  to  Kearny.  It  is  said  that  no  first- 
class  general  neglects  to  keep  a  reserve  in  hand  for 
the  crisis.  Whatever  exertion  Kearny  was  called  upon 
to  make,  there  was  always  in  him  an  immense  power 
in  reserve,  which  seemed  incapable  of  being  exhausted. 
Whatever  had  been  the  drafts  made  upon  his  brain- 
force,  there  seemed  to  be  something  still  left  behind 
for  an  emergency.  He  did  not  fall  short  in  any  re 
quisite  of  a  great  general :  first-class  in  organization, 
administration,  and  command,  he  exerted  a  marvellous 
electrifying  effect  in  action,  and  perhaps  no  man  had  a 
clearer  apprehension  of  topography,  one  of  the  most 
necessary  qualities  of  a  commander,  he  seemed  to  carry 
a  case  of  maps  in  his  hand.  It  is  related  that  during  the 
Seven  Days'  Retreat  he  rode  up  to  the  house  of  an  old 
settler  to  obtain  a  corroboration  of  his  explorations,  of  the 
lay  of  the  land  and  of  the  run  of  the  roads  and  the  streams. 


PHILIP  KEARNY.  8 1 

An  officer  present  stated  that  his  questions  demonstrated 
he  had  discovered  and  knew  by  personal  reconnoitring  all 
the  details  which  the  old  settler  had  acquired  through  a 
lifelong  residence  in  the  same  district. 

There  is  no  use,  however,  in  adding  praise  to  praise, 
and  the  following  verses  by  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman, 
the  broker-poet,  will  serve  as  a  summary.  Moltke,  in  a 
speech  after  the  great  Prusso-French  war,  observed  that, 
do  what  the  soldier  might  to  win  renown,  his  posthumous 
fame,  after  all,  was  made  by  the  historian,  or  his  biogra 
pher,  or  the  poet,  especially  the  latter.  In  this  brief 
sketch  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  present  in  the  space 
accorded  some  idea  of  the  life  and  services  of  a  hero  ;  let 
the  poet  do  the  rest. 


KEARNY  AT  SEVEN  PINES. 

BY 

EDMUND  CLARENCE  STEDMAN, 


KEARNY  AT  SEVEN  PINES 

BY 

EDMUND  CLARENCE  STEDMAN. 

So  that  soldierly  legend  is  still  on  its  journey, — 
That  story  of  Kearny  who  knew  not  to  yield ! 
'T  was   the  day   when   with   Jameson,    fierce  Berry,  and 

Birney, 

Against  twenty  thousand  he  rallied  the  field. 
Where  the  red  volleys  poured,  where  the  clamor  rose 

highest, 
Where  the  dead  lay  in  clumps  through  the  dwarf  oak 

and  pine ; 

Where  the  aim  from  the  thicket  was  surest  and  nighest — 
No  charge  like  Phil  Kearny's  along  the  whole  line. 

When  the  battle  went  ill,  and  the  bravest  were  solemn, 

Near  the  dark  Seven  Pines,  where  we  still  held  our 

ground, 
He  rode  down  the  length  of  the  withering  column, 

And  his  heart  at  our  war-cry  leapt  up  with  a  bound  ; 
He  snuffed,  like  his  charger,  the  wind  of  the  powder, — 

His  sword  waved  us  on,  and  we  answered  the  sign  : 
Loud  our  cheer  as  we  rushed,  but  his  laugh  rang  the  louder, 

"  There  's  the  devil's  own  fun,  boys,  along  the  whole 
line!" 

How  he  strode  his  brown  steed !  How  we  saw  his  blade 

brighten 

In  the  one  hand  still  left, — and  the  reins  in  his  teeth ! 
He  laughed  like  a  boy  when  the  holidays  heighten, 
But  a  soldier's  glance  shot  from  his  visor  beneath. 

85 


86  KEARNY  AT  SEVEN  PINES. 

Up  came  the  reserves  to  the  mele"e  infernal, 

Asking  where  to  go  in — through  the  clearing  or  pine  ? 

"  Oh,  anywhere  !     Forward  !     'T  is  all  the  same,  Colonel : 
You  11  find  lovely  fighting  along  the  whole  line  !  " 

Oh,  veil  the  black  shroud  of  night  at  Chantilly, 

That  hid  him  from  sight  of  his  brave  men  and  tried  ! 
Foul,  foul  sped  the  bullet  that  clipped  the  white  lily, 

The  flower  of  our  knighthood,  the  whole  army's  pride  ! 
Yet  we  dream  that  he  still — in  that  shadowy  region, 

Where  the  dead  form  their  ranks  at  the  wan  drummer's 

sign — 
Rides  on,  as  of  old,  down  the  length  of  his  legion, 

And  the  word  still  is  Forward  !  along  the  whole  line. 


A  DASHING  DRAGOON. 
THE  MURAT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY. 


A  DASHING  DRAGOON. 

THE  MURAT  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ARMY. 

(From  "  Onward,"  January,  1869,  vol.  I.,  p.  25.) 
(In  the  single  copy  preserved  by  Gen.  de  Peyster.) 

THERE  is  a  name  among  the  military  heroes  of  Amer 
ica  not  so  often  spoken  as  it  should  be  ;  but  which,  when 
spoken,  never  fails  to  strike  upon  the  ear  with  an  interest 
almost  romantic.  In  it  the  soldier  recognizes  the  ring  of 
the  true  metal ;  and  its  mention  calls  up  the  image  of  as 
fine  a  dragoon  officer  as  ever  drew  sabre  or  set  foot  in  a 
stirrup. 

This  officer  was  Philip  Kearny. 

Was  !  How  sad  an  old  comrade  feels  in  penning  the 
past  tense  !  Would  I  could  say  is  ! 

Alas  !  it  cannot  be.  His  life-blood,  of  which  he  was  so 
daringly  regardless,  has  fertilized  the  sod  of  Chantilly ;  his 
ashes  rest  in  the  tomb  of  his  ancestors ;  and  his  heroic 
soul  has  passed  to  a  more  peaceful  world.  But  for  that 
fatal  shot  that  made  him  a  corpse  in  the  saddle,  his  name 
would  now  have  been  louder  upon  the  lips  of  his  country 
men.  For  the  man  who  cried  "  Cowardice  or  treason  !  " 
when  Malvern  Hill  was  so  basely  abandoned  to  the  foe, 
would  have  led  to  victory  had  he  lived ;  and  this  man  was 
General  Philip  Kearny. 

To  say  this  is  no  disparagement  to  the  successful  lead 
ers  who  survived  him.  I  don't  think  there  is  one  among 
them  will  deny  that,  had  Phil  Kearny  not  met  premature 
death,  he  would  have  achieved  rank  second  to  none,  as 
second  to  none  has  he  won  reputation.  And  it  is  a  repu 
tation  that  will,  year  after  year,  and  day  after  day,  grow 

89 


90  A   DASHING  DKAGOOW. 

brighter ;  as,  under  the  calm  retrospect  of  peace,  his  deeds 
of  warlike  daring — of  high  chivalric  heroism — become 
better  known. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  write  the  biography  of  General 
Philip  Kearny.  There  are  other  pens  better  fitted  for  the 
task ;  and  some  one  of  them  will  no  doubt  perform  this 
national  duty.  It  should  be  a  labor  of  love  for  any  pa 
triot  to  write  the  story  of  such  a  life  ;  and  there  is  no  pa 
triot  who  should  not  read  it.  I  am  incapable  :  for  while 
Kearny  was  engaged  in  that  grand  struggle,  that  gave  the 
latest  proofs,  alike  of  his  gallantry  as  devotion  to  his  coun 
try's  cause,  I  was  far  away  in  a  distant  quarter  of  the  globe. 

In  the  lesser  strife,  that  by  something  more  than  a  dec 
ade  preceded  it — the  second  conquest  of  Mexico, — I  was 
by  his  side,  and  saw  him  do  a  deed  that  fixed  him  in  my 
mind  forever  after  as  a  "  dashing  dragoon." 

It  is  of  this  deed,  too  little  known,  I  desire  to  make 
record  ;  so  that  it  may  assist  the  future  biographer  of  the 
gallant  Kearny,  as  also  the  historian  of  that  spirited  Mex 
ican  expedition — still  but  feebly  chronicled.  Partly  for 
these  reasons,  and  partly  that  the  eye-witnesses  of  those 
far-distant  events — in  their  day  thought  stirring,  and  still 
picturesque — are  gradually  growing  less  in  number.* 

Alas,  that  from  among  us  Phil  Kearny  is  missing !  But 
his  memory  is  with  us ;  and  now  for  a  chapter  that  will 
not  only  recall  him  to  the  thoughts  of  his  old  comrades, 
but  his  countrymen,  in  all  the  dash,  the  daring,  the  un 
paralleled  picturesqueness  of  his  character. 

It  was  the  battlefield,  known  in  history  as  Churubusco ; 
so  called  from  a  stream  of  the  name,  with  a  village  upon 
its  banks — a  cluster  of  huts  and  churches,  with  a  grand 
convent  rising  massively  in  their  midst.  It  is  on  the 
famed  National  Road,  leading  south  towards  Acapulco 
from  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  about  five  miles  from  the 
suburb  of  the  latter  city — the  garita  of  San  Antonio  de 
Abad. 

*  The  singular  manner  of  Phil  Kearny's  death  is  not  generally  known  ; 
but  to  describe  it  is  a* task  too  painful  for  a  friend. 


A   DASHING  DRAGOON1.  91 

The  crossing  of  the  stream  was  defended  by  a  battery 
on  the  t$te  de  pont,  by  flanking  works  along  the  banks  on 
both  sides,  and  by  a  strong  body  of  troops  that  occupied 
the  convent  of  Churubusco,  for  the  time  transformed  into 
a  fortress. 

It  cost  the  American  army  a  deadly  struggle  to  take 
these  works ;  all  the  deadlier  that  they  were  defended  by 
two  hundred  brave  Irishmen,  who,  as  is  too  often  the 
case,  were  fighting  on  the  wrong  side.  They  were  desert 
ers,  and  fought  in  despair — with  the  prospect  of  a  halter  if 
taken.*  The  tete  de  pont,  although  desperately  defended, 
was  at  length  carried ;  the  sooner  that  a  brigade  of  gal 
lant  volunteers,  sent  round  by  the  left  flank,  pressed  the 
enemy  at  the  Hacienda  Los  Portales.  But  for  this,  it  is 
a  question  whether  Churubusco  would  have  been  carried 
so  soon. 

This  brigade,  sent  as  above-mentioned  to  the  left,  on 
its  own  side,  had  enough  work  to  do.  It  consisted  of  the 
New  York  and  South  Carolina  regiments. 

As  we  stood  side  by  side  that  day,  our  flags  swayed  by 
the  same  breeze,  our  muzzles  pointed  in  the  same  direc 
tion,  who  could  have  thought  that  those  standards  should 
ever  be  seen  in  opposing  ranks,  or  those  bayonets  ever 
clash  in  the  conflict  of  internecine  strife  ?  Surely  not  one 
of  us. 

No ;  we  had  enough  to  think  of  without  that,  as  our 
men  fell,  side  by  side,  or  one  upon  the  other,  mingling 
their  life-blood  together — the  best  of  the  North,  as  of  the 
South. 

And  both  flowed  equally,  as  freely  !  In  those  days 
men  used  to  talk  of  Waterloo  and  its  terrible  carnage. 
Man  for  man,  there  was  more  blood  spilled  at  Churubusco. 

*  They  were  taken,  and  fifty  of  them  hanged  in  one  morning — the 
morning  on  which  Chapultepec  was  stormed.  Twenty-eight  were  hanged 
at  one  place.  Simultaneously,  and  by  tap  of  drum,  were  they  launched 
into  eternity.  It  was  a  terrible  retribution,  but  could  not  well  be  avoided. 
On  that  day  the  fate  of  the  American  army  hung  suspended  as  on  a  thread, 
and  the  example  was  one  of  stern  necessity. 


92  A   DASHING  DRAGOON. 

The  writer  of  this  sketch  was  in  command  of  sixty  volun 
teer  soldiers.  When  the  action  was  over,  he  counted 
thirty-two  of  them  lying  on  the  grass,  nearly  a  dozen  of 
them  dead !  After  this  it  is  not  necessary  to  say  they 
were  brave.  And  it  needed  all  their  courage  to  carry  the 
defences  of  Los  Portales.  There  was  a  time  when  they 
wavered.  What  troops  would  not  have  done  so  under  a 
shower  of  leaden  hail  that,  in  addition  to  half  their  num 
bers,  laid  low  nearly  every  field-officer  in  the  brigade  ?  It 
would  have  been  no  cowardice  had  they  at  that  time 
retreated. 

But  they  did  not.  A  young  officer,  belonging  to  the 
New  York  regiment,*  sprang  forth,  and  called  upon  them 
to  follow  him  to  the  charge.  The  Irish  drummer,  Murphy, 
dashed  out  after ;  gave  a  soul-stirring  tap  to  his  drum,  and, 
as  if  keeping  time  to  its  quick  rolling,  Empires  and  Pal 
mettos  rushed  forward  at  bayonet  charge. 

The  coming  of  the  cold  steel  was  a  warning  to  the 
Mexican  troops.  A  squadron  of  their  cavalry,  threaten 
ing  a  charge  on  our  left,  wheeled  their  horses  quick  about, 
and  went  off  at  a  hand  gallop  for  the  city ;  while  the  foot 
defenders  of  Los  Portales  and  the  causeway  of  the 
Acapulco  road  flung  down  their  discharged  escopettes,  and 
scattered  off  through  swamp  and  chaparral.  Still  led  by 
the  New  York  officer,  the  remnants  of  the  half-slaughtered 
brigade  plunged  breast-deep  into  the  slimy  zanca,  clam 
bered  up  the  causeway,  and  continued  the  pursuit  along 
the  level  road. 

Exhausted  by  the  long-continued  struggle,  saturated 
with  water  from  sole  to  waist,  laden  with  sink-mud,  they 
made  but  slow  progress. 

But  at  that  moment  there  appeared,  coming  along  the 
causeway,  a  troop  going  quicker,  that  promised  to  take 
the  pursuit  off  their  hands.  It  was  a  troop  [a  squadron] 
of  horsemen,  with  horses  all  of  light  iron  gray  color,  f 


*  Mayne  Reid,  the  writer  himself. 

f  Kearny  took  great  pride  in  his   dragoons,  and  had   their  horses  in 


A   DASHING  DRAGOON.  93 

Emerging  from  the  smoke-cloud  of  Churubusco,  they 
looked  like  a  band  of  angels  with  Gabriel  at  their  head ! 
It  was  KEARNY  with  his  squadron  of  cavalry.  Before  the 
fatigued  foot  had  time  to  congratulate  themselves  on  the 
relief,  the  dragoons  came  sweeping  past.  They  were 
going  at  full  gallop  in  half  sections  of  twos,  the  men  with 
sloped  sabres,  the  horses  with  snorting  nostrils,  each 
buried  in  the  spread  tail  of  that  preceding  him  ;  the  hoofs 
of  all  striking  simultaneously  on  the  firm  crown  of  the 
causeway,  as  if  they  were  galloping  to  set  music ! 

At  their  head  rode  a  man  of  slight  stature,  with  light- 
colored  hair,  and  a  complexion  to  correspond.  A  long 
tawny  moustache  became  the  classical  type  of  face,  and 
somewhat  aquiline  nose  that  surmounted  it.  They  were 
features  belonging  to  a  natural-born  commander,  and 
looked  in  their  place  at  the  head  of  a  charging  troop. 
They  were  the  features  of  PHIL  KEARNY. 

The  young  New  York  officer,  recognizing  them  as  those 
of  his  gallant  friend,  cried  out  to  his  tired  comrades: 
"  Now,  boys  ;  three  cheers  for  Phil  Kearny !  You  Ve  still 
breath  enough  for  that?"  The  shout  that  responded 
showed  he  had  not  mistaken  their  strength.  Most  of 
them  were  New  Yorkers,  and  knew  that  Kearny  was  of 
their  kind. 

The  dragoons  had  scarce  passed  when  an  aide-de-camp 
rode  up,  bearing  a  message  from  the  Commander-in-Chief. 
It  was  an  order  to  stay  the  pursuit !  It  was  given  to  a  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  the  only  field  officer  upon  the  ground. 
The  order  came  upon  the  men  like  a  bomb-shell,  projected 
from  the  rear.  Stop  the  pursuit !  What  did  it  mean  ? 
They  had  put  the  enemy  to  flight ;  and  they  knew  he 
would  not  again  make  stand  to  oppose  them  that  side  the 
city — nor  even  in  the  city ;  for  the  scare  upon  his  scat 
tered  troops  would  be  sure  to  carry  them  clear  through 
it,  especially  when  chased  by  Kearny.  Stop  the  pur- 

uniform — a  beautiful  dapple  gray.  This  had  been  effected,  at  considerable 
expense  to  himself,  by  exchanging  the  regulation  horse  for  a  handsomer  and 
better. 


94  A   DASHING  DRAGOON. 

suit!  What  could  it  mean?  The  lieutenant-colonel 
could  not  tell.  He  could  only  beg  of  them  to  obey. 
They  laughed  at  him,  for  he  had  not  led  them ;  and  only 
looked  to  the  lieutenant  who  had.  The  latter  listened 
to  the  order  from  the  aide-de-camp,  for  it  was  at  length 
directed  to  him,  as  the  only  one  who  had  the  power  to 
enforce  obedience  to  it.  "  'T  is  a  fatal  mistake,"  said  he, 
"  and  General  Scott  will  find  it  out  in  time.  We  have 
the  city  in  our  power ;  and  it  will  cost  more  blood  to  get 
it  so  again."  "  The  orders  are  for  you  to  halt !  "  shouted 
the  aide-de-camp,  who,  accompanied  by  a  cavalry  bugler, 
galloped  on  after  the  dragoons.  "  Halt !  "  cried  the  New 
York  lieutenant,  flinging  himself  in  front  of  the  pursuers, 
and  raising  his  sword  with  an  air  of  determination.  It 
was  a  command  that  came  only  from  a  sense  of  military 
duty,  and  the  word  faltered  upon  his  lips,  as  he  pro 
nounced  it.  "Halt  did  yez  say,  liftinant?"  "Halt!" 
repeated  the  officer,  in  a  firmer  tone.  "  If  you  say  halt, 
begorrah,  we  '11  do  it ;  but  not  for  any  other  officer  in  the 
Amirekean  army!"  With  the  sword  held  at  point,  the 
lieutenant  stood  determinedly  pointing  them;  and  the 
men  came  reluctantly  to  a  stand.  They  had  scarce  done 
so,  when  a  spectacle  commenced  passing  before  their  eyes 
that  made  every  man  of  them  sad — almost  mad.  Back  along 
the  road  came  riding  the  squadron  [troop]  of  Kearny,  not 
as  they  had  passed  before,  at  full  gallop,  in  the  flush 
of  a  vigorous  charge  ;  but  slow  and  dejected  as  if  return 
ing  from  a  reverse.  And  in  the  rear  rode  their  leader, 
his  left  arm  no  longer  grasping  the  reins,  but  hanging  by 
his  side,  like  the  sling  jacket  of  a  hussar ! 

The  tale  was  soon  told.  Some  half-mile  beyond  the 
spot  where  the  aide-de-camp  halted  us,  the  enemy  had  cut 
the  Acapulco  road  and  thrown  a  parapet  across  it,  with 
the  usual  fosse  outside.  Here  a  few  of  their  bravest  men 
had  determined  on  making  a  last  stand.  But  Kearny, 
braver  than  they,  riding  at  wild  gallop,  had  leaped  his 
horse  into  the  work — with  one  spring,  clearing  both  ditch 
and  parapet !  His  faithful  sergeant  had  followed  him  ; 


A   DASHING  DKAGOOW.  95 

both,  as  soon  as  they  alighted,  plying  their  sabres  upon  the 
enemy  inside !  At  that  moment  sounded  the  recall  bugle 
of  the  orderly  accompanying  Scott's  aide-de-camp  ;  and  the 
American  dragoons,  trained  to  the  signal,  pulled  short  up 
outside. 

It  was  a  terrible  predicament !  Alone  within  the  en 
trenchment,  surrounded  by  a  score  of  assailants,  Kearny 
and  his  sergeant  had  no  other  alternative  but  retreat; 
and,  wheeling  right  about,  both  headed  their  horses  to 
releap  the  ditch.  Their  gallant  grays  carried  them  across 
— the  sergeant  safe ;  but  the  best  cavalry  officer  in  the 
American  army  received  a  [canister]  shot  in  his  left  arm 
that  caused  him  instantaneously  to  let  go  his  bridle  rein. 
It  pained  me  to  see  it  hanging  loose,  as  he  and  his 
squadron  filed  past,  going  back  along  the  Acapulco 
road.  But  the  cheer  that  saluted  his  return  was  far  more 
sympathetic  and  not  less  enthusiastic  than  that  sent 
after  him  in  his  impetuous  charge.  In  the  battle  of 
Churubusco,  as  on  other  Mexican  fields,  the  writer  of  this 
sketch  commanded  a  corps  of  men — who  were  a  strange 
conglomeration  of  veterans  and  vieux  sabreurs.  They 
had  seen  service  on  almost  every  European  field,  as  alsor 
in  Asia  and  Africa.  They  had  been  organized  in  New 
York  City,  under  the  aegis  of  an  old  Napoleonic  officer — 
the  Count  de  Bongars.  By  the  incidence  of  campaign  life 
they  came  under  my  command  shortly  after  the  battle  of 
Cerro  Gordo,  and  so  continued  till  peace  was  sealed  by 
the  treaty  of  Gaudalupe  Hidalgo.  Among  them  were 
many  cavalry  men,  who  had  been  trained  in  the  first 
schools,  and  taken  part  in  celebrated  charges.  One  and 
all  confessed  to  me  they  had  never  witnessed  a  charge  so 
perfect,  so  compact,  so  dashing,  as  that  led  by  Phil 
Kearny  along  the  causeway  of  San  Antonio  de  Abad. 
To  convince  me  of  this,  I  did  not  need  their  testimony : 
for  I  too  had  seen  something  of  cavalry  service — enough 
to  know  that,  if  there  be  any  dispute  as  to  who  is  the 
Murat  of  the  American  army,  it  must  be  between  two 
men  of  similar  Christian  names — two  Philips:  in  short, 

between  Kearny  and  Sheridan. 

MAYNE  REID. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


HEAD-QUARTERS,  IST  BRIGADE, 

CAMP  THREE  MILES  FROM  BULL'S  RUN, 

March  9,  1862,  2|  P.M. 

CAPTAIN  PURDY,  A.  A.-G. : 

SIR: — On  information  of  my  scout,  I  felt  justified  in 
making,  this  day,  a  reconnoissance  to  Sangster's  Station. 
We  have  done  this  with  caution,  and  forced  in  their 
pickets,  which  were  in  some  force  at  Sangster's. 

Col.  Taylor  commanded  the  advance.  Col.  Simpson 
with  uncommon  judgment  echeloned  our  supports  and 
guarded  us  from  attacks  from  our  right. 

A  cavalry  charge,  unrivaled  in  brilliancy,  headed  by 
Lieut.  Hidden,  Lincoln  Horse,  broke  them,  captured 
them,  annihilated  them.  It  was  paid  for  with  his  life. 
A  lieutenant  and  many  foot  are  in  our  hands. 

The  Lincoln  Horse  has  distinguished  itself,  also,  in  our 
patrols,  which  report  the  ox-road  and  further  country 
safe.  The  3d  Reg.,  N.  J.  Vols.,  has  been,  so  far,  in  the 
advance,  the  2d  supporting  it ;  Col.  Simpson  holding 
Fairfax  Station  and  intermediate  country;  1st  Reg.  at 
Burkes. 

The  country  has  been  safely  covered  at  all  points. 
The  enemy  evidently  is  disheartened  and  retiring.  Their 
cars  are  continually  running  to  Manassas. 

Sir,  I  await  further  orders,  my  original  ones  being  to 
remain  at  Burkes. 

Respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 

P.  KEARNY. 


99 


IOO  CORRESPONDENCE. 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  NEW  JERSEY  BRIGADE, 
CAMP  SEMINARY,  March  19,  1862. 

DEAR  MADAME: — A  sad  duty  makes  me  intrude  on 
the  hallowed  nature  of  your  sorrow.  Whilst  you  lament 
the  son,  as  commander  and  present  where  he  proved  the 
hero,  I  ask  to  sympathize  with  you  in  his  glory. 

As  far  as  that  son,  citizen,  and  soldier  belonged  to  his 
country,  I  have  done  him  justice  in  my  report  of  the  en 
gagement.  His  brilliant  victory  and  daring  courage  have 
been  made  history.  But  here,  Madame,  my  hopes  of 
consolation  for  you  end.  With  whatever  fortitude  you 
may  alleviate  your  sorrows,  for  you,  as  mother,  there  can 
be  no  diminishing  by  his  public  glory  the  anguish  of  the 
parent ;  as  far  as  comrades  in  arms  of  that  son,  in  my 
own  name  and  for  them  all,  I  beg  to  assure  you  of  our 
sympathies. 

With  great  respect,  yours  most  sincerely, 

P.  KEARNY,  Brig.-GeneraL 

MRS.  HIDDEN,  New  York. 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  NEW  JERSEY  BRIGADE, 
CAMP,  November  8,  1861. 

SIR: — Dr.  Hamilton  requests  to  purchase  fresh  beef. 
I  am  not  aware  of  any  objections  in  a  single  or  a  few  cases, 
if  so  ordered  by  Gen.  Franklin. 

BUT  officers  cannot  have  choice  pieces  ;  they  must  take 
it  as  it  comes, 

I  enforce  this  most  rigidly  in  my  own  case. 
Respectfully, 

P.  KEARNY,  M.-G. 
CAPT.  PURDY,  A.  A. -Gen.  Div.  Head-quar. 


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LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 
Book  Slip-25m-6,'66(G3855s4)458 


N2  469628 

EU67.1 
Kearny,  P.  K2U 

Service  with  the       K2 
French  troops  in 
Africa. 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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